#3

Layout in ancient writing: UX inspiration from history

Studying for any job includes studying the history of that job. I think that the history of UX starts not from the creation of the phrase User Experience and not with ergonomics, but with actual experience that people had in the past with different tools and devices. I got inspired by Edward Tufte who finds inspiration for information visualization in sources from different fields, different times, and different cultures, and that is why I try to do these inspirations from history articles. Hope you enjoy it.

Drawing of scribe working on a manuscript, surrounded by his research material, 15th century. Source

It’s no secret that a lot of the practice that we use in interface design came from the printing industry. I wanted to dive into the history of mediums used for writing to see some techniques that were used before the web existed and see how they influenced us today.

Alphabetization

The oldest known sample of using the alphabet to structure information can be seen in the Great Library of Alexandria and is presumed to be…