A history of navigation affordances

Permanent Note

Maturity: done

It’s easy to see how well a book functions and think that function is inevitable.1 1 Good IA feels inevitable and obvious, it lacks the frission of friction that feels like innovation. In that way that information tends to work, the information architecture of the book even functions beyond its intended scope: Books are having a moment as fashion accessories, being sent down runways in the hands of models in 2023. That signification is only possible because books gained standardized covers in the 1820s, something they didn’t have for the previous 1500 years of the book:

  • Writing words (3400 BC)
  • Books (3000 BC)2 2 This is an academic definition of what a “book” is, which includes clay tablets, papyrus scrolls, as well as the more familiar “book” we know, technically called a “codex.”
  • Picture books (1200 BC)3 3 These weren’t for children, but were books that focused on pictures. They were, unsurprisingly, immediately used for pornography.
  • Pages (100s-300s)
  • Chapters (500s)
  • Spaces between words (900s)
  • Capital letters (900s)
  • Tables of contents (1100s)
  • Titles (1400s)4 4 Books used an incipit, or their first line, to identify themselves prior to this.
  • Punctuation (1400s)
  • Page numbers (1510)
  • Alphabetization (1500s)
  • Index (1500s)
  • Title page (1520)
  • Silent reading (1600s)
  • Footnotes (1600s)
  • Covers (1820)5 5 Books had had covers since the codex became common, but those covers were selected and applied by the new owner after or as part of purchase. For many years, printed books were sold as loose sheets, for the buyer to get illustrated and bind according to their own preferences. This includes the color/material of the binding as well as the number of volumes they wanted the book to be.

  • Standardized citations (1920s)

  • Menus (1984)
  • Page titles (1991)
  • Link directory pages (1991)
  • Headings (1991)
  • Links (1991)
  • URLs (1994)
  • Keywords (1995)
  • Persistent navigation (1995)
  • Breadcrumbs (1995)
  • Sitemaps (1996)
  • Distinct “zones” to a web page (1996)
  • Hamburger menu (2009)
  • Mega menu (2009)

Idea: Class activity could be to put these in order

References

Frederick G. Kilgour. The evolution of the book . Oxford University Press. 1998.

Le, Mina. (2024, February 14). Booktok & the hotgirlification of reading. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxDd8ocpcHk

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