Designing a better reading experience with Matter: Winsight's New Restaurant Community Launches Jan. 28, 2021

Designing a better reading experience with Matter: Winsight's New Restaurant Community Launches Jan. 28, 2021

Introduction:
In the digital age, reading online has become a multi-step process that includes deciding what to read, the act of reading, and what to do with the knowledge gained. As avid users of read-it-later apps, my co-founder Rob Mackenzie and I recognized the need for smarter tools to enhance the reading experience. The first generation of read-it-later apps lacked features like prioritization, resurfacing, and decay. This led us to create Matter, a platform that aims to revolutionize the way we read and consume information.

Prioritizing Needs that Won't Change:
Jeff Bezos once emphasized the importance of focusing on needs that won't change. As we look into the future, we understand that the supply of great content will continue to rise, while attention remains scarce. Therefore, making good decisions about what to read will always be valuable. Matter aims to address this by providing intelligent curation and highlighting overlooked gems that are often obscure or old.

Elevating Writers and Trust:
Trust plays a crucial role in deciding what to read, and people inherently trust other people. With Matter, we made the deliberate decision to elevate writers as first-class citizens in our system. By doing so, we enable users to discover valuable content through reliable curation, rather than relying solely on engagement-based algorithms. Trusting the expertise and recommendations of writers enhances the overall reading experience.

Balancing New and Evergreen Content:
While the importance of new content cannot be denied, it is essential to balance it with evergreen content. The bias towards what's new is strong in our information consumption habits, especially on social media. However, we believe that the vast majority of the best content ever produced was not written in the past week. Matter aims to serve as a counterweight by delivering relevant and manageable content from both new and timeless sources.

Improving the Reading Environment:
Email inboxes are not designed for immersive reading experiences. Most people want to quickly go through their emails, not spend more time there. Additionally, email lacks the ability to highlight and annotate. Matter addresses this issue by providing a dedicated reading environment that allows users to highlight and annotate seamlessly. By incorporating sophisticated techniques like NLP and computer vision, we enhance the user experience and accuracy of parsing.

Embracing Audio Consumption:
As consumer behavior shifts, audio consumption has gained significant traction. The rise of hardware that makes listening more convenient has contributed to the increasing popularity of "ear time." Matter recognizes this trend and has introduced a feature called "audio highlights." Users can now highlight content as they listen, without having to open their phones. This integration of audio enhances the flexibility of the reading experience.

Intuitive Navigation:
To enhance the ease of navigation, Matter introduces the concept of minimaps. By implementing a two-finger tap on an article, users can view a miniaturized version that allows them to scan headers and quickly navigate through the content. Inspired by video games and code editors, this feature is especially useful on mobile devices and promises to be even more impressive on desktop web.

Catering to Active Readers:
Matter's core users are what we refer to as "active" readers. They are intentional about their reading choices, proactively curate their information diets, and often have favorite writers or subscribe to newsletters. Our goal with Matter is to increase the return on investment for reading. We want to help readers extract more insight, knowledge, and thrill from the time they invest in reading.

Actionable Advice:

1. Prioritize your reading: Focus on content that has long-lasting value rather than being solely driven by what's new. Seek out writers and curators you trust to discover hidden gems.

2. Embrace audio consumption: Take advantage of the rise in audio content by incorporating it into your reading routine. Use features like audio highlights to make the most of your listening time.

3. Utilize intuitive navigation tools: Explore platforms that offer intuitive navigation features like minimaps. These tools can help you quickly scan headers and navigate through articles, saving you time and improving your overall reading experience.

Conclusion:
Designing a better reading experience requires a holistic approach that considers various factors, including curation, trust, balancing content, improving the reading environment, embracing audio consumption, and intuitive navigation. Matter aims to address these aspects and enhance the ROI of reading by providing users with curated, relevant, and manageable content. By prioritizing needs that won't change and incorporating unique features, Matter revolutionizes the way we read and consume information online.