Amazon Kindle

The Kindle wireless portable reading device is the first physical manifestation of the Amazon.com brand. It is a continuous narrative that originates from the Amazon.com bookstore and evolves into a seamless reading experience. From the design brief to fulfillment centers, the only point of contact Amazon doesn’t control in the Kindle experience is the friendly UPS driver.

For e-books to take off, the design team decided that the e-reader would need to make the experience of e-books better. Kindle was purpose-driven for reading, keeping what people love about books—simplicity, ease of use and their effortless ability to captivate—and enabled new possibilities.

The goal was to deliver a solution that eliminates all excess from the reader and accessories to the packaging. The Kindle was designed to fade away so that the reader can escape into the written word. And the packaging was designed to create a frustration-free experience for consumers, eliminating the mountain of trash that occurs when consumers unbox their purchase.

As the Kindle market grows and more readers choose to access content digitally, fewer trees are felled, fewer trucks are on the road and fewer time-sensitive publications, such as newspaper and textbooks, need to be destroyed as they are now automatically updated. With the addition of text-to-speech, Kindle can quickly convert to a platform that assists a diverse set of needs. From students who are learning English as a second language to those who are visual impaired, customers can now access not only their favorite books but also magazines, newspapers and blogs. And customers around the world, and in small communities that do not have immediate access to bookstores, can download hundreds of thousands of titles, including New York Times best-sellers and new releases, in less than 60 seconds.

Credit: Lab126

Contact: Stephanie Mantello: stepward@amazon.com