From the readings this week, it's clear that ebooks are still evolving. With so many options for interactivity, I can see how it's taken so long for the industry to fully comprehend what ebooks have to offer.
My favorite reading was "The Renaissance of the Interactive Book" because it offers information that is incredibly useful. As the ebook industry has been evolving it has made both positive and negative choices. By remembering lesson number one "Know Your Content" publishers will begin to understand that just because something CAN be interactive, doesn't mean it HAS to be. Alice for iPad is a great example of this. A child may find the interactive elements quite fun, but an adult reading the book will find that many don't enhance the experience which (which is tragic, because that's their whole reason for existing in the first place).
Different content is targeted to different demographics and the interactions should reflect that. Interactive ebooks that may appeal to various demographics (such as Alice in Wonderland) will need different settings in order to appeal to everyone in the household that has access to it. I don't see publishers bothering to publish two completely different versions of an ebook (one for children and one for adults) but rather combining the two into a single product. Maybe they will have a sort of "log in" screen where the user will choose the "adult" or "child" setting for who is using the product at the time, the book will then adjust to the specific user by adding/removing audio commentary or adjusting the images to adjust for age appropriateness.
Even further ebooks might have specific log-ins such to identify friends and family that own/share the ebook. These would appear as "Stacey's" "Jamie's" or "Dad's"specific log in for a book. Each login will allow that reader to write their own notes, highlight their favorite passages and record messages for other user logins to view and interact with. Dad could record a hilarious message about dating vampires and leave it for for his daughters to listen to while they read certain passages in Twilight. Today's society is very connected through social media and I can see that connectivity transferring to ebooks very easily. Allowing friends or fans to discuss their impressions of a passage or see updated author's notes and thoughts are simple ways for people to share their experiences.
Walking through London and having your phone/ebook relate passages from Dracula to your actual location sounds incredibly entertaining to me. This also applies lesson number two from "The Renaissance of the Interactive Book" which expresses the importance of contextual design.
Today's ebooks are not going to be read on laptops or home computers, they will be read on iPads, other tablets or cell phones. These devices are part of our every day lives and are used in a number of ways, often by different people. While these functions are cool, I don't think people are going to travel all around their city or take an entire vacation to another city in order to unlock the geographical features of an interactive ebook. The exception to this could possibly be travel books that provide information linked to books you have read or interesting historical facts as you travel throughout the city. Traveling through Paris with an ebook on Paris explaining the history of the city at various time periods could be quite entertaining. Learning about the catacombs and viewing a map of them under the city while you walk over the street to enjoy your morning coffee sounds like a wonderful experience.
In my opinion the really amazing opportunities for ebooks of the future will lie with the way they can tie information with the location in which you're in. Travel ebooks will provide the user with information before their vacation and continue to unveil it while they are in their final destination. Imagine how amazing learning about the Colisseum before a trip to Rome and then having new information unveiled while you're walking through it through video, picture and audio would be.
No comments:
Post a Comment