eLit User Experience: Audience+Purpose=Design

Responding to the conference theme of “peripheries,” user experience and interface design are frequently on the periphery of electronic literature. Attention to these details, however, can effectively immerse readers in sensory-rich literary aesthetics. User experience and interface design also prompts authors to consider differently-abled readers, viewers, and/or inter-actors, often themselves on the peripheries. This presentation proposes practices for embodying user experience and interface design in works of electronic literature. The desired end result is to enable creators of electronic literature to best utilize the features, affordances, and constraints offered by the digital context of their medium to promote affectively powerful literary experiences.