Some great articles about digital books

http://www.economist.com/node/21528611?fsrc=nlw|edh|09-08-11|editors_highlights

http://labs.snowcastleco.com/2011/09/09/content-may-be-digital-it-may-be-multimedia-but-that-doesn%E2%80%99t-mean-it%E2%80%99s-interactive/

http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2012/01/developer-profile-snowcastle-interactive-provides-true-interactivity-for-kids/


Knowledge I picked out of these articles:



When you go digital with analog content you have three fundamental choices:

1. You can treat the content “as is” and simply see it as an adaption of the same content to a new distribution channel. This is both honest and completely fine. Good original content remains good original content whether it is on paper or screen.
2. You can enhance the original content with multimedia, links, annotations etc. This is a more perilous road.
3. Lastly, you can transform the analogue source material into truly interactive content. Welcome to the great new frontier where both risks and rewards are great and native pathfinders are essential!

1: It is worth remembering that the tactile usability experience of a physical book is one of the best, if not the best interface ever made.

2: Enhancement, may be better – or not – depending on how relevant the additional content is, and how well it is done.
Enhancing content, even when the enhancements are relevant, does not necessarily add that much real value to the user.
What is worse is that usability often suffers from these enhancements. A good story is broken up. Multimedia is not really integrated, but patched onto the content, disturbing the smooth flow the user wants.

3: True interactivity happens when the user can interact with the digital content in a seamless way to personalize both the experience and to differing degrees, even the story itself. True interactivity allows a user to return to the same content and experience it in different ways. True interactivity adds real value to digital content.

This (true interactivity in books) is the future; this is digital content as we will see it 5-10 years down the road. And guess what: The media and publishing industry have no clue how to get there. Luckily someone already inhabits this future and has successfully monetized digital content for 30 years plus: The game developers!
So what is interactivity as a game developer sees it? Interactivity is at the core of all gaming content. Successful interactivity has two basic ingredients: A particular form of creativity and a deep understanding of human psychology. Successful interactivity plays to such basic and deeply human instincts as the attraction to challenges, curiosity, capacity for fun and the insatiable demand for rewards and recognition.
To harness the possibilities of interactive storytelling, the media and publishing industry have to borrow heavily from the gaming world and they have to do it fast, because the natives already know how to this and might want to extend their multibillion empire of digital content into story telling too.

lol, according to the last lines, I, as a game student, am on the right track. Although I don't completely agree with the part about using game design as an example for an interactive book. I think it's partly true, game design tools can be used in creating an interactive book, but 'true interaction' doesn't need to rely only on game design. Also game design is only an element of interaction design, so why only use games as an example of a good interactive book? 'Successful interactivity has two basic ingredients: a paricular form of creativity and a deep understanding of human psychology', this is too broad. Art can also be a particular form of creativity and a deep understanding of human psychology. And what is a 'particular form of creativity', or a 'deep understanding of human psychology', how does this create a good game or interactive book? Of course you need to be creative to design and create something and when you're designing for a target audience, you need to know the psychology of your target audience. But I think there is a lot more neccesary to create a fun experience in an interactive book.



Another book I want to read:
Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience
by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Fieldresearch

A list of interesting articles, books and examples of interactive books


Articles about designing an Interactive Book
very good article by the designer of the Interactive Book: Alice in Wonderland
The article itself is not that intesting, but I like how people create their own augmented reality, combining analogue books with the ipad or iphone
An interactive book cover.


Good examples of interactive books
Alice in Wonderland, by Chris Stevens - Demibooks
Digital book, Mike Matas
note: I'm more focused on designing a childrens book, but this is still a good talk about the possibilities of Interaction in books)
The fantastic flying books of mr. Morris Lessmore, Moonbot
note: I love the visuals in this book, it's almost an animation (which is not that strange, since this is made by (ex) Pixar animators.
The wizard of Oz (Ozbook) There are a lot of different interactions in this interactive book, using a lot of the possibilities of the Ipad. These interactions are related to the story. It is a very playful book.
Slice of Bread goes to the Beach This is a very playful interactive book, with all the different interactions. I also like the beginning, where you can see the breadroaster car drive away. This is nicely animated and modeled. I like the combination between 2-d and 3-d. I'm not a good modeller myself, but I don't animate that quickly. But this way of animating is much more do-able than The Fantastic Flying Books of mr. Morris Lessmore.


Other examples of interactive books (both good and bad)
Peter Rabbit What is good about this book is the way they allow children to read along, which makes this book also a learning experience. I like the authentic feel of the book, it's beautifully visualised. But (with some exeptions, like the falling leaves) the interactions that are used can be used in normal pop-out books as well. Ofcourse, this is clearly a designchoice, but I think it's more interesting to explore more possibilities in interaction.


Bad examples of interactive books
20 thinks I learned about browsers and the web, Google
note: this is not an interesting interactive book, this is just a simulation of a book
Changing a story I like the idea of having an interactive story, but in this 'interactive book' changing a subject doesn't have any effect in the rest of the story. And again, no further interesting interactions.
ePub3 make your own interactive book again, just another book simulator. You can make your own book, but it is very limited to ePub3's idea of what an interactive book is.
Ebook Well, at least they don't call this an interactive book. But I would like to test this on my targetaudience, see what they think of this, is this really fun?




Books I want to buy for research
The Interactive Book: A Guide to the Interactive Revolution
Celia Pearce

Inspiration
pop up book animation
living canvas
watercolor
another watercolor