Ibooks Research

I tried looking for some interactive iBooks on the iPad but I found it difficult to find ones that were a similar topic to my own or even had a similar style to how i wanted to do mine. most of the iBooks i found for free weren't very interactive and I found this first one to do with nature. The book claims to be interactive but i'd have to disagree though I do like the visual style of it even though it looks quite basic.

The only interactive element I could find in this iBook was the image slider on the right of this page, though there were only 2 images on it, but I like the idea of using this feature but possibly with more images. I also think the visual style of having a split screen with 2 images is quite nice.

There was also an introductory video at the beginning of the Ibook which used some interesting transitions between images, but also had some very annoying, standard classical music, I think they could've used a soundtrack more fitting music to the nature theme, such as something ambient and less loud and dramatic sounding.

The iBook is pretty much just an image gallery with photos of animals and scenery which you just slide through or click on to see bigger, there was barely any text to accompany the image and hardly any information in relevance to the photos.

Body 103

I then looked at a video demo of an interactive ibook on YouTube called Body by Digital Summit TV and was created to teach about the human body. It contains a lot of scientific text and information as well as imagery, and starts off with an introductory video about the team the ibook was created for.

This is what one of  the pages in the ibook looks like, The bold words will have a pop up feature over them and provide more information, they also link to the glossary which contains extra information. I would probably like to use the pop up feature in my ibook to save space on a page for more visual elements so that it won't seem too text heavy.

This next page is quite text heavy and has a small interactive image at the top right of the page of a heart which slowly rotates on loop. You can click on the image to enlarge it and use your finger to move and rotate the heart to be able to study it closely. You can also highlight the text and add notes.

In section 2 of the ibook there are interactive quizzes in which you can find the answers from previous pages of the ibook and test your learning. There is also an image gallery in the ibook which you can flip through, The image gallery widget is also something i'd like to feature in my own ibook as you can also put information or a caption to go with each image which could be useful for making more space for putting hidden information.

They also used a label feature on the brain section on a 3D model of the brain to label different parts of the brain saying what they are and explaining what they do. They have included interactive audio clips as well related to the topics they are talking about for you to listen to.

The rest of the iBook uses similar interactive elements with object rotation , image galleries and questions. they've also input some videos to watch and an interactive google maps widget as well as some panoramic images.

Body, Interactive iBook video demo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPCOuZvUD6Y

Interactive Listening

This is a musical interactive iBook. On the first page that opens there is an audio file of a musical track that you can listen to, underneath is a question with an image where you have to listen to the soundtrack and input the instruments on the sheet music in the order that they start playing in. I think this is a pretty creative way of using audio clips and quizzes.

Here they have used the same labelling widget, used in the body ibook. They have used this in a photo of a big orchestra to label the different instruments that're included in an orchestra.

They also have more audio clips of music and the same 3D object rotation widget. That seems to be all they have though for the interactive part of the ibook. I think both of these ibooks look quite cleanly presented and have a lot of empty space for a fresher, simple and professional look.

Interactive Listening ibook video demo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4x5woJ_0fI

I would like my ibook to have a much busier style with less empty space and have a hand crafted feel to it. much like the style of a scrap book or travel journal as that is the kind of idea and feel that i get from the theme Forests. Something that is organic and natural looking and full of life.