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

Week 22

This week I've explored by using Keri Smiths book 'How to be an explorer of the world'.
I've put on music of horror movie 'The Ring' while traveling.
I went on a stroll and ended at the beach in Scheveningen.
I've been an self-ethnographer, documenting how many times I've said something without thinking.
I've done a questionairy, asked people what their online name was, where they wanted to go, how they think about mustaches and so on.
I've created logo's for all my daily activities.
And I've done some people spotting, sitting in a cafetaria, looking at people that stroll by, checking out what they wear and document this.

I had to present this to Tarek Atrissi, who is probably going to be my mentor (but that is not sure yet).
In this presentation I also had to tell what my qualities, knowledge and skills are (which is visual design and play design) and what I wanted to develop (I want to develop these skills further and combine them into one project).
Together with Tom van der Linden (another Game Artist), I'm planning to choose an existing story and use it to create an interactive book. Tom is mainly focusing on concept art, while I am researching play design and do visual design as well.

First Post, let me introduce myself

Hello, my name is Sonja van Vuure. I'm in my last year at the Utrecht High School of Arts, where I study Game Art.
This last year of my study is devoted to my graduation project. I want to design an Interactive Book and research how to make this a playful experience. Interactive Books are quite new and rarely have an interesting design. So I think I can really add something to the picture, by doing good research and implementing this research in a good design.

Game Art is mostly about visual design for games and interactions. But during my study I've created a big interest in Interaction Design, or better phrased: Play Design as well. I've neven 'only' done the visual design of the projects I've worked on, I've also had a big influence as a designer for play or interactions as well.

Some projects I've done:
Cardboard Mechanics


The Norbits
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwRz1hjtv7Q
http://vimeo.com/10477205

Nonsense
http://magicbean.nu/
http://vimeo.com/35287777


I will give an update at least every week, to document what I've done and what progress I've made.