Over the past ten years, Kairos has always been on the cutting edge of design, employing the latest and most interesting features available to designers at the time. Like the practices of web design itself, the journal's interface has matured, moving from the technically interesting but less usable original interface (which featured no fewer than six frames) to what we hope is a more user-centered design that is subtle enough not to detract from the design of the webtexts we publish (the loom as elegant design technology) but forceful enough to support the branding of those works as published under the imprimatur of Kairos (the arrow that circulates via its flight path).
The initial design was daring: it was dark, it had (many) frames, and you could access search engines and research tools without leaving the journal. Designer Jason Teague wanted Kairos to be not just a journal, but a research portal as well. By issue 1.3, the frames had been reduced to only 3, and the overall design featured higher text-background contrast. In issue 2.1 we introduced a popup "remote control" feature that could give readers access to the table of contents from anywhere within the journal (however, it was rarely used, and phased out over volume three). The third (and current) design debuted in issue 4.1 (1999). The interface still uses some interesting javascript, but it is far more subtle and much more readable. The frames have been reduced to one (the "binder" that appears to the left of each webtext). Although this design has served us well, we are in the process of developing a new design -- one that will take advantage of the research and community-building tools of a content management system (harkening back to the functions the original editors hoped the journal could provide). We'll focus on higher readability and more reliable navigation. Next: Review Process
In issue 5.1, Dennis Jerz presents a critique of the Kairos interface based on user-testing and feedback from his technical writing students. He expressed disappointment with our 1999 redesign, writing
Kairos, kudos to you for being what you are. Curses to you for evolving, and therefore recklessly depriving me of a useful critical target. Hey... this coverweb about hypertext fiction looks interesting... [** click **]
Screenshots
