Department of the Interior

Design has been on my mind, well, it has since about last Monday. Our class discussion on if the ability to see inside a book ranked among our “top five components needed to purchase a book” triggered a bit of self-reflection upon my own tendencies as a book consumer.
For all the arguing I do against e-books on the basis of lack of tactility, when it comes down to it it’s almost comedic that holding a book in hand didn’t rate with me. When I initially made my own mental list, I didn’t even think about what’s inside. In retrospect, it’s a pretty obvious factor. I usually purchase books from a physical store. When I pick a book up off the shelf, I do leaf through it, especially when the book purchase isn’t premeditated.
All of my online book purchases have been textbooks I was required to buy, books that I knew I wanted before going on amazon, or I decided to purchase based upon my familiarity with the author, or my interest in the book description, reviews or website recommendations. The later books have mostly been used-novels, all below ten dollars. At this stage I did take a passing glance at the cover, but it wasn’t really a factor in my final purchase.
Some of the factors that would require me to see inside the book would be a high monetary price, an inadequate book description, and especially the visual nature of the book. If the book was an instruction manual, full of photographs or illustrations, or recipes, I would need or at least want to see inside that book.
Enter the “see inside” feature on amazon.com. This feature enables the consumer to see the front and back cover, table of contents, sometimes an author bio, and a couple of other select pages.
The question is--does this feature offer an apt enough representation of the book for me to purchase it? I decided to try this feature on a couple of my favorite “visual” books off of my own bookshelf. My two selections: Miss Spider’s Wedding and I Like You: Hospitality Under the Influence.
Miss Spider’s Wedding is a children's book filled with stunning illustrations crafted in oil. “See Inside” enabled me to see the front and back cover and a few illustrations. In this case, I would agree that the tactile quality of being able to see the work in its physical form, printed on high quality stock, is something that a website can’t provide. Still “See Inside” succeeds at providing a bit of insight into the book. If a consumer liked what they saw based upon this feature then they would be pleasantly surprised after purchase, book in hand, because the images would be more vibrant than the online depiction.
I Like You: Hospitality Under the Influence is a bit of a different story. The layout of the book is sections of texts accompanied by recipes, lists, and photos (both large and small). The problem with “See Inside” here is the consumer is able to see front, back, table of contents and a few photos. This is not an accurate representation of the layout of the book. One of the pages is a full-page picture of a girl made from dried beans, another is a full-page photo of Amy Sedaris. The table of contents is a list of specific events that wouldn’t make sense unless the viewer had viewed the section of the book to see what Sedaris means by titles like “tgif.”
In conclusion, the physical nature of a book matters, however it matters in different degrees based on the consumer. Persons deeply invested in design or designers are gonna want to hold and see any book before purchase. People, like myself, who are affected by design, but do not realize it are gonna want to check out this “See Inside” feature if they are unfamiliar with and if the book they wish to purchase is of a visual nature. Tactility and the physical book do matter to me I’m just not always aware of it.