Stride and Prejudice

I chose a simple ebook to review this week, a new take on the old classic "Pride and Prejudice." Entitled "Stride and Prejudice" this ebook tries to find a fun way to encourage it's audience to read piece of classic literature.  It does this by creating a pixelized representation of the main character Elizabeth Bennett which then jumps over gaps in the scrolling text of the novel itself in video game like fashion.

There are several fonts used within the application and the mix seems to take away from the vintage video game motif that the developers were trying to create.  The home page menus have a sans serif font that that looks out of place on the box shaped menu buttons.  Despite this being an electronic source, the serif font used for the text in the title and the actual reading material is done well and is not a distraction.  Perhaps this is due to the fact that the text does not form paragraphs and pages, but remains one line.  The serif font also helps the viewer imagine the words as a "platform" from which the main character will be jumping.

The color choices for the menu  and character are the same.  This creates a monochromatic feel to the experience because there are not many other colors in the first place.  Cool colors like a light blue don't jump out to the foreground much either, but the lighter tints of blue of the sub menus are done well and can be easily distinguished from the main menus.  One of the exceptions to the monochromatic theme is the deep red of the "Game Over" screen.  While there are not many colors in the book, the audience has the option to change the background color, however the light tan and black backgrounds make the character even harder to distinguish as the focal point.

When you first open "Stride and Prejudice" the pixelated menu resembles a vintage video game and the ebook maintains this motif throughout it's various menus and the actual text itself. The menu's themselves are very simple and easy to navigate.  The viewers have the options of changing the background color and the speed the text scrolls.  They also have the option of "reading" the book from the last spot they finished, or starting over in a "survival mode" which is intended to test the viewers skills with the game aspect of the app.  The scroll speed can be increased to a speed which is nearly impossible to read, which turns the ebook into more of a game at that point.

Once the reader begins the story the application becomes much more simple.  A musical tune begins to play and the character appears standing on top of the words of the book.  The words then begin to scroll across the screen and when the character reaches the end of the words, the viewer must press the iPad in time to cause the character to jump onto the next set of words.  While this idea seems simple, trying to read and time the jumps of the character is not easy.  If the viewer focuses too much on the character (game aspect) of the book, then they are not able to read the story.  Likewise, if they focus too much on reading the story and the character falls, the reader must either restart the story or be disturbed by a menu prompting them to decide to continue reading or end the experience.

Perhaps the most distracting part of the reading experience is the structure of the gaps the character must jump over.  The gap spaces appear at random points mid sentence, which cause a chaotic and unorganized feeling.  The segments of the sentences also vary in height, length and gap space.  While this is clearly meant to keep the reader actively engaged, it further distracts from the fact that they are supposed to be reading a classic novel as well.

Overall "Stride and Prejudice" appears to be an idea that simply didn't come together correctly.  The simple colors used by the menus and character bring to mind retro video games from the past, but the text of the book is somewhat meaningless.  In order to continue reading the story, the viewer has to jump over the gaps in the text, which distracts them from the very words they are trying to read.  In this case "Stride and Prejudice" seems to be more of a game with a unique twist than an actual ebook.