Bringing Kindle Back from the Dead
AMAZON
I led the Kindle eReader design team, working on three generations of Kindle releases—the first Kindle without a hardware keyboard, the first touch Kindle, and the Kindle Paperwhite.
In 2011 I made the case to replace all Kindle eReader screen savers. I pointed out that we were about to release Kindles internationally and the current screen savers showcased English-speaking authors. In addition, some Kindle users thought the author portraits weren’t, uh, aesthetically pleasing. Entire discussion threads were dedicated to getting Amazon to “ditch the creepy, dead author screensavers.”
In addition, the color Kindle Fire tablet product line was going to need its own set of screen savers which could emphasize the devices’ broad media support. .
The resulting screen saver images won Communication Arts magazine's 2012 award for excellence in commercial photography. This was a particularly satisfying project because, in the end, it just made users happy.
