Improving paper books: searchable books

Much of today’s information is digitised. Representation of information is increasingly becoming digital. Yet, paper books remain popular, as many readers prefer the reading experience that paper books provide, which digital interfaces cannot. In this paper, our aim is to improve users’ reading experience by enhancing books with digital functionalities. We conducted a user survey study to identify features that users desire. The study highlights one specific feature – content searching within books. From this result, we discuss three design choices that can incorporate digital searching into paper books.