And something is becoming very clear to me- there is a huge disconnect between the two! I mean, we all know this, but think about how dissimilar they are. Literally every aspect is different. I wonder when this will change.

Form factor is one issue. Screens are horizontal (unless you work at a newspaper) and print is generally more vertical. Will screens start to become more vertical, or might paper start to become more horizontal. Think about it. A tall monitor is weird (I've tried it with Tiger, very hard to use), yet a horizontal magazine seems equally unpractical.
Screens and most print formats just don't match




Resolution is another issue. Print is still around 4 times more dense in the same area. It seems that the technology is starting to look at this... with displays becoming higher-res than we would have thought possible just a few years ago. To be fair though, $100 Epson printers are getting proprtionally better too; not to mention million dollar presses. At any rate... the question becomes... what do the designers do with this? We need to start seriously looking at how to design for both at the same time.
How to reconcile the total difference in resolution?




Then there's the issue of color space. Not a huge concern for casual use, but it's yet another thing that make the worlds all too different.

Lastly, theres something tangible and editable about print that makes it easy to navigate. Spread a document out on your desk or fan out a newspaper... no big deal. But even with RIAs and new patterns, the screen is still really finite in relation to print.

I'm starting to think that one of the next major challenges is going to be to merge the two more. For a few years now, I've been seeing attempts at "virtual" desktops, where the computer is actually a physical desktop. I keep reading about Sony's digital paper, which is exciting. Steps are being taken on the technical side, but content designers are going to need to start thinking about this too!






Ty Lettau
Senior Interactive Designer, XD