Project Overview
Brief- Monotype x Penguin Random House (DnAD)
Industry- SaaS, EdTech
Timeline- 6 weeks
My Role- Conceptualization, Designing, Prototyping, Coding
Challenge
Reading is no longer confined to traditional print, it’s everywhere, shapeshifting across platforms, languages, and moments of attention.
So how do we create a type-led product for diverse reading habits and the changing nature of reading?
Approach
We once learned how to read by tracing our fingers across pages. Elementary was built on this habit.
Instead of having more goals to set, more questions to answer, I had a subtractive approach. Taking away everything from the screen but the words for your cursor to trace as you read.
Words that feel alive
Created a digital reading experience that mirrors how people engage and read in the real world. When reading a physical book, the subconscious action of placing a finger beneath a line of text serves two primary functions: maintaining focus and regulating pace. This act creates a tangible connection to the text.
Each letter subtly responds to the reader's cursor, not only highlighting the reader's position of the screen but also helping readers stay engaged and not get distracted. Leveraging HCI principles to enhance reading comprehension and decrease the habitual skimming tendency common in digital consumption.
Lines that you linger on
Designed to gently slow your scroll by capping your scroll speed.
The explosion of short form media and AI summaries have eroded our focus and tolerance for slow reading. Digital reading has become a norm, and it is plagued by distractions and a growing tendency to skim for the gist.
By scrambling the text during fast scrolling, we reinforce the brain's preference for stability and deliberate, slow movement, teaching the user that intentional scrolling is required to maintain focus and clarity. This feature is implemented via localized CSS distortion, so it works efficiently across many devices.
Complete control on your page
With the amount of in depth research available about font variations and their impact on reading speed and comprehension, it became essential to give the readers full autonomy over their text. The collapsible side bar allowed readers to easily tweak the text variably, without getting in their way by collapsing into focus mode.
Customization isn't just limited to the font family, font size, line-spacing, and letter spacing. The input field allows for uploading files, pasting content and even urls to enable this reading experience across various digital texts coming from a variety of sources.
What's next?
While finalising this project, I came across Chrome’s mobile reading mode, which helped shape a possible direction for further development. It highlighted the value of creating a seamless, low-friction experience that integrates naturally into users’ existing browsing habits. Building on this, I would like to continue developing the project into a lightweight overlay web extension that functions across different websites, removing the need for users to copy and paste content into a separate platform.
*This project was built on my core belief that the best digital design choices are built on existing human habits rather than forcing users to learn entirely new behaviours.
