The challenge
Most reading interfaces are optimised for the first ten seconds.
Sustained reading needs different things — measure, rhythm, contrast that does not fatigue, and the absence of anything that interrupts.
Opportunity
Typography is the product
Everything else is in service of it.
The solution
The typographic system came first.
Interface chrome recedes while reading, and the controls a reader actually reaches for appear where the hand already is.
Design decision
Type before layout
The reading system defines everything else.
Measure, scale and rhythm were set for sustained attention, then the rest of the interface was built around them.
Design decision
Chrome that recedes
The interface disappears while reading.
Controls return on intent rather than sitting permanently in the reader's peripheral vision.
Outcome
A reading experience designed for the twentieth minute.
With a type system that holds at every breakpoint.