Unfinished and finished prototypes
These are some of the unfinished and finished prototypes. At last count, I made over 60 prototypes that informed the new NUE UX spine. These conversions range from paperback novels to expensive planners.
The lower left is my most beautiful prototype: It is a converted Smythson planner, www.smythson.com. (I have no relationship or endorsement from them.) I have a British friend whose response to seeing the prototype was amazement and "My Smythson diaries don't even lay flat when half open."
The upper right prototype was built to test the new designs on a very thick book. It had the same benefits, eg ease of holding, as shown in the videos.
Rebinding Unbroken, Abundance, and It Worked For Me made all of them an incredibly easy and pleasant to read. Sooooo much easier, frankly.
Our first Kickstarter campaign is here. Additional Kickstarter project(s) are likely.
A couple notes regarding spiral or loop bindings
The other cool thing I realized in the invention story above is that I could make spiral-bound books with spirals that were smaller (in diameter) than the height of the text stack. This would greatly reduce the inconvenience of the spiral by:-
reducing its susceptibility to damage,
-
by allowing spiral notebooks to simply slide in and out of backpack w/o catching on things,
-
by allowing covers that could completely cover the binding AND remain cubic in shape, and
-
by making it comfortable to rest your hand on when writing.
The spiral bound method provided a starting point for the new NUE UX spine technology.
Converted paperbacks were definitely easier to read and enjoy the wriiten content when liberated from the squirrelly confines imposed by the standard perfect binding typical to paperbacks.