Poor Alice

After reading the article Enhanced ebooks are bad for children finds American study I began to think back on the many discussions we've had in the class. First, I sympathize for the poor bloke who made this interactive Alice in Wonderland enhanced E-book. It seems like every article we read about failed interactivity, bad design - and in this case - the idea that new-fangled future books are hurting our kids. It really is a decent looking app that I'm sure a whole team put a lot of effort into. It's a beautiful piece of work that, I think, deserves respect.

With that digression over, this article definitely brings to mind the idea of an expanding number of genres of narrative. Reading a story with a child (on paper or e-ink display) is one type of narrative interaction. It's analogous to what we've been doing for centuries. The enhanced e-book on the other hand is an entirely different experience with animations, interactive elements, pictures, etc. While the study tried to prove that the enhanced e-book was terrible for kids - lessening their recall and understanding of the content. I would argue that the experience is entirely different and cannot be compared to the classical take on books and narrative interaction.

Device 6 is not a typical book. We do not interact with it like a typical book. The way we process and experience the narrative is not like a typical book. It's something new. Something different. A new way to use words on a page and added functionality to expand both the tools for story-telling and the experience of the reader.

Perhaps because the Alice enhanced e-book is a direct adaptation of a classical piece of literature it is easy for us to try and compare the traditional format to the new and intimidating. An enhanced e-book is not a book. It is something new and different. Any attempt to compare any aspect of the two is like comparing apples and oranges; and frankly, unfair to the poor designers who just wanted to make a fun picture book of Alice in Wonderland.