Analysing iBooks

To do some more research, I'm going to analyse some existing 'enhanced' and regular iBooks. This should help me gain some understanding on what makes a successful iBook and what doesn't, as well as further identify any conventions and patterns throughout them. I viewed them on my iPad, to see the full experience the iBook gives. Screenshots are direct from the iPad.

'Our Wild Planet'
The first iBook I analysed was one that was not enhanced, but very similar to what I've been asked to do. It's an information book about different types of animals, with different chapters explaining different animals that fall into different categories within each.

Our Wild Planet - Nature Through The Eyes of a Project Noah Community

This is the very first page you see when you open the iBook. You can see that the bottom of the screen contains a row of dots. Each of those dots represent a chapter, and then within that chapter there additional sections with their own pages. In the above image you can see I am in Chapter 1, Page 1. Below you can see how when you scroll through the different chapters, each row of images (previews of what's on that page) changes. 

Once I had delved into one of the chapters, I noticed an obvious recurring theme about all of the pages containing content - they're all pretty much the same! There seems to be very little difference between each information page, no matter what category it may be in - a page in the 'birds' category is the same as a page in the 'mammals' and then the same as one in the 'anthropods' category.

The above screen caps are from the 'mammals' and 'birds' categories. They both contain a portrait image on either the far left or right, with specific styles for the heading, subtitle and body text. To me, this is quite a dull way of presenting information. It does not look that interesting. The black font against the stark white background is too text-book-like and despite the small chunks of information, I don't think this provides an easy way to learn. 

There are points, though, randomly throughout the iBook where there is good positioning of text around images. The images are large and cover the entire page, forcing the text to work around it. In some areas it works, some not so much, but I think it's a much more successful way of laying out the information. 

Example 1                                                                             Example 2

Example 1: Relatively successful. Good use of a large image, and the darker text works well with the green. 

Example 2: Excellent use of space around the main subject of the image & well coloured text that is very readable against the green background. Your eyes travel around the entire page.

There is no interaction in this iBook, it's purely for reference. You can easily skip to and from chapters, and using the iBook app you can take notes along the way and view an outline of the entire book. You can see below the toolbar you use the navigate, and the notes/summary page.

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'Visual Dictionary - 11 Languages'

Next up is this pure interaction based iBook. It's an iBook that teaches foreign languages and, in the same, the words for different items in an airport. There are only two types of interaction - swiping from page to page, and sound upon selection of images. I recorded a short video of how you interact with the iBook.

I think the lack of varied interaction works in this iBook. Whilst I only download the sample version so I haven't seen the entire thing, I do think perhaps a small bit of more information could be included. Either an introduction screen or a small piece of text on each page.

Compared to my previous analysis, this iBook is much more reliant on the users common sense and whether they understand that they can click on an image and it will play a sound. Small sound icons may help to ensure that people get the full experience from it.

The graphics are very simple and easy to understand. The title of the book contains the word 'symbols', so the iBook itself uses very recognisable 'symbols' that are generally understood as signs worldwide. 

As you can see above, no matter which page or chapter you're on, or which language you're trying to learn, the page layout stays exactly the same. This provides great sense of continuity and makes it extremely easy to navigate, but does look a bit dull after a while. Perhaps an inclusion of the countries flags somewhere? May help. 

iBooks & iBooks Author

I want to find out a bit more information about iBooks and the software that I'm going to be using in order for me to start generating ideas and develop my brainstorming further. I am interested in doing some brief research into iBooks author as the results should allow me to distinguish how much scope I have to play within the program - is there any thing that the program isn't capable of doing?  What scale of interaction can I go to?

Alongside doing this I'm now starting to gather the content for my iBook under the category 'Volcanoes'. I am so happy I received this category! It's something that when you first hear it, it immediately sounds interesting and now I'm doing some initial research into it.

iBooks Author
iBooks Author is an application created by Apple to enable anyone to make their own iBooks and submit them to the Apple iBook store. They can be ready on iPhones, iPads and Apple Macs.

As well as allowing you to do the obvious - put text and images on a page - iBooks Author allows the user to 'interact' with the book to a greater extent than the regular iBook may allow. iBooks that have interactions in them are referred to as 'enhanced' iBooks.

According to Apples information page on iBooks Author, it's capabilities include:
http://www.apple.com/uk/ibooks-author/

- Use of prebuilt templates

I'm about 80% sure I will not be using a prebuilt template, as I would design my iBook from the ground up within their software and then design individual elements. I need to start looking into design styles.

- Add text
- Add shapes
- Add tables
- Add charts

All basic. standard elements, similar to Apple Keynote.

- Add widgets

The widgets panel in iBooks author

Widgets will allow me to implement significant interaction and animation into my iBook to help strengthen it and make it more interesting

Widgets include: importing Keynote presentations (which can include animations themselves, built within Keynote, interactive images (zoom into them, pan throughout them), image galleries (navigate through a set of pictures without having them all on the page), scrolling sidebars (allow users to briefly browse a side note without them leaving the page), 'pop over' (clickable points on an image where more information can pop up in a box), add media (add video & music and embed from external sources e.g. YouTube), chapter reviews (option to create a multi choice quiz at the end of a chapter to enable the user to check what they've learnt), 3D images (ability to view a 3D image from all angles, with added controls to navigate), and the ability to add your own HTML models. 

There is also option to choose between a Portrait or Landscape iBook. I'm likely to be going with Landscape, as it seems more of a natural way for someone read - kind of like a double page spread in a magazine - and will give me more scope to experiment with page layout as well as use larger images/graphs/interactions etc.

Now I've looked into what the software I'm going to be using is actually capable of, I can ensure that whilst brainstorming and developing ideas I am not planning to design & create something that is impossible to pull off within the means I have.

Target Audience, Specific Content & Existing Material

The target audience for my Volcanoes iBook is Level 3 Students - those studying A-Level. That puts them at a relatively similar age to me - 1 or 2 years younger. This gives me scope to analyse works  that I can somewhat relate to, too.

As our iBooks must be treated as something intended for Education purposes, I decided to do some research into what sort of depth students at Level 3 go into when actually studying the subject I'm creating my iBook about. I want to make an iBook that's relevant and can actually be used - covers the appropriate subjects within the category.

Not only that, but what content are they looking at in order to revise and study a subject? Is it engaging? What designs and concepts work and which don't?

Content covered at Level 3
I found a website called www.s-cool.co.uk/a-level by it being the very first result upon googling "A-Level Revision. This is not a website that I'm familiar with (personally, I didn't take 'typical' A-levels and never revised!), and I was actually looking out for sites that are more well known (both in popularity and for reliability) such as BBC Bitesize. It seems like a relatively large organisation (stating on their site 4.7 million users annually) that can be relied on.

I navigated;
A-Level ---- Geography ---- Natural Hazards
http://www.s-cool.co.uk/a-level/geography/natural-hazards

and then found the categories 'Formation of Volcanoes' and 'Volcanic Hazards'.

These are two subjects I'll make sure to cover in my iBook, and I have bookmarked the page for to access information when writing those categories.

I will obviously expand hugely and not focus purely on those categories. These are just ones that I'm going to make sure are covered.

Existing A-Level Revision Material 
I had a browse on the iBook store to see if there were any existing A-Level revision guides - on both the subject of Volcanoes/Geography and general subjects (e.g. maths). I wanted to identify any patterns and similarities, and see if there is any correlations with the rating/responses to the book.

**Commence the most painfully boring set of books I've ever come across.**

I could not find one 'enhanced' (Apples name for books that you really can interact with through the inclusion of games, sound, video etc) iBook that was really aimed at those studying their A-Levels. There is plenty of revision guides, but nothing that stands out as particularly engaging or exciting.

They're all very text heavy, with little focus on design and more about the content. I understand this, as their sole purpose is to educate, but I feel as if the readability of these books could be greatly improved through some consideration on a few points - e.g. the amount of text on a page, the colour of that text against the background.

example of the amount of text spread across two pages

iBook: Physics Unit 1: The Rooster Revision Guide (sample)

The inclusion of diagrams help breaks up the text slightly, and I like the style they're in. They're walking the line between real images and childish cartoons, and they work. They're the typical, textbook style diagrams, so I may continue this into my own iBook.

What I'd change is the extent of text. Those 2 pages up there contain 6 headings, and I would at least break that up into a maximum of 2 heading per page, with some of them just covering 1 on each page. This would allow room for more breathing space and the enlargement of graphs and diagrams.

There's also room for exchanging out flat images for something more interactive.

example of diagrams that could be transformed into something more interactive

Main things I noticed:

•  Great depth into each subject

•  Appropriate imagery to match each category

•  Links (that work) to outside sources (e.g websites explaining more information)

•  Narrative. Whilst there is no obvious story, each category runs on from the previous, but you're still    able to pick up and read from anywhere within. 

Areas to be improved:

•  Readability

•  Amount of information on one single page, to be reduced

•  Turning images to interactions - e.g. mini games

•  Add more interactions - e.g. mini quizzes at the end of each subject

AF106: Interaction Design

New brief time! This assignment is focused more on Interaction Design; specifically iBooks.

The task is to create an iBook for Level 3 students (A-Level) that can be used as an educational resource. It's to be constructed on iBooks Author to be used on the iPad.

As the iBook will be used an 'educational resource' all of the information included in it must be factually correct - this means using reliable sources and adhering to copyright restrictions in the same way you would when writing a report.

In order to make the iBook more interesting and engaging and bring the subject to life, it must be Interactive (e.g. the 'i' in 'iBook') and of a 'documentary narrative'. So, it must be presented in a reasonably formal way in some form of narrative. The chapters and articles should run from each other and the iBook should also have the ability to link to pages back and forth throughout.

The subject of the iBook will be a "wonder of nature".

My subject is: Volcanoes

The iBook must be built out of a frame of 'robust navigation', so this is an element I will research and explore further throughout the assignment. It must contain a combination of text and images, as well as video and sound files. All of these must be sourced and then put into an asset register. 

The asset register must detail the sources of each asset with information on copyright restrictions.

In order to conduct my research, I must find and analyse examples of iBooks and Animated elements that are part of an interactive navigation structure. As well as this, I must conduct visual research which will help me develop the design, interaction and navigation of my iBook.

My pitch to the group must contain examples of research, mockups, storyboards and my plans for the navigation of my iBook.

To hand in submission:

• Pitch
• A folder containing
• iBook Authoring File (.iba)
• Finished exported iBook
• PDF render of finished iBook
• Working files (in a folder)
• Asset Register
• Production Schedule with intervals
• Sketchbook

The sketchbook and this blog must contain:

• Evidence of research
• Preparatory work
• Final Designs
• Evidence of a developed understanding of technical and design issues
• Evidence of a developed understanding of interactive design principles and practise.
• Evidence of user testing

Crit & Evaluation

Today I presented my short film to the class, and got some feedback. Below is my proposed final film.

Crit
The export is exactly 22 seconds long. It contains a 2 second introduction, which is a black screen with the title 'A Messy Situation' fading in, in a scrawl-like, handwriting font, then cutting when the first sound is heard - a phone vibrate. I count the beginning of my film as this point, as that's when the sound starts. From here the film runs to use up the maximum amount of time we were allowed - 20 seconds. 

I was generally feeling very confident about my film, with my only concern being that in some places it may have been cut a bit too quickly. E.g. from 9 seconds to around 12 seconds. There are a lot of shots within such a small amount of time, and things like the throwing of the make up in the book are on and off screen very, very quickly. I presented this concern to the class, and explained that in order for me to portray a sense of narrative I had to trade off the longer, establishing shots in the beginning with a lot sharper, snappier shots throughout. They responded saying that they didn't feel it was cut too quick, understood the narrative and felt it helped to portray a sense of panic.

The class liked my sound effects, particularly the use of the clock ticking and the heavy breathing throughout. Combined with the snappy edits they again felt it put across panic in a successful way.

Another positive comment was my range of shots. I explained how, due to my conclusions when researching, one of my aims was to have good cinematography through use of focus and camera angles, and I was complimented on this. Overall I had very positive feedback, and as a result I'm going to leave my film and submit it as it is. I could probably continue to edit and edit and edit...but that seems to always be the case with editing - you never feel completely finished. 

Evaluation
I am happy with my film. I've created what I set out to achieve, and that is a film that fulfils the brief through having the correct amount of cuts, duration and is dynamic and interesting with successful sound effects. Throughout the process of making my film, I've developed it, and I've done this during both pre-production, production and post-production. When I started I wanted to simply wanted to have "someone tidying a room". I then developed it further, came up with a few shot ideas, settled on a storyline etc. Then whilst filming I realised how I had over complicated things. This forced me to reconsider what I was doing, take a step back and refocus my efforts on creating a balance on an interesting, obvious storyline that was not too complicated. I think I've achieved this. 

As I mentioned above, the editing process turned into a bit of a toss up and a "give and take" between shots that had to be longer (eg. reading the reminder on the phone) and shots that I could afford to trim.

Above I have selected some shots in yellow. You can see that at the beginning and end there are two longer shots. These are shots that I felt I could not compromise on - they had to be a bit longer. The first shot, of the reminder on the phone, had to be long in order to allow ample time for it to be read - if it's not read then it leads to a misunderstanding of the film (e.g. why are they rushing?). The shot itself is only just under 1.5 seconds, but is quite dramatically longer compared to a lot of the other shots, as you can see. I felt I needed to keep the end shot quite long (in comparison) too, and this is because I wanted to avoid having an abrupt ending. I saw an opportunity within my shot of the hoover - where it comes right up to the camera. 

When I saw this, I knew I wanted to create a quick dip to black, which would allow a nice fadeout to my film. This would allow me to end the film how I started it, too, with just sound. This portion of the film (the black screen) took up 3.8 seconds, though, which is a large chunk of time when I only had 20 seconds in the first place. This has again resulted in having to generously trim a lot of shots within my film, some of which I feel have suffered, and some I've had to cut out as it was becoming impossible to feature every piece of action within each shot. 

Despite this give and take between shots, I've managed to include everything I felt was necessary and hit the requirements defined in the brief. If I had more time - even 1 more second! - I would extend those shorter shots I have highlighted above on the timeline. They play very, very quickly and I'm still not sure I like it. The sounds are still present and help the understanding of what's on screen, though.

What has benefited me when editing was my pre-production and how I planned to 'act' on screen. I have not really sped up any of my shots to try and trim time and increase the tempo of the film, instead I have stuck with the way I acted out the shots originally. I tried to be dramatic in my acting through over emphasising things (e.g. pressing a button, forcing shut a drawer) and I feel this has greatly benefited my film. It's made it feel more rushed and forceful, and has added to the sense of panic. This is something I feel has been successful in the creation of my film.

After I had a general edit of my film, I started to source and import sounds. I'd already planned what sort of sounds I wanted, it was just the sourcing of the sounds I found tricky. What didn't help was trying to decide whether I wanted to go the 'comedic' route or just have sounds that were more true to what was on screen. I went with the latter, as I liked a lot of the sounds that I recorded myself when timing. These felt a bit more organic and seemed to work well. If I would improve, I'd try to create a rhythm with the sound. I've seen this done before, e.g. the Lurpak advert, and I like the idea of it. It's very engaging, making someone want to continue watching because it's interesting and amusing. I found it tricky to create an 'environment' out of the sound I used, so I would definitely improve this.

I did use a "room tone" in my film. This is similar to ambient sound. It's the sound of a room when it's left alone, no other sounds/actions happening. The one I used has a very slight hum, but I used it over my entire film. This allowed me to mute clips that had sounds I didn't want in it, and avoid having moments of pure silence - instead, the room tone would be heard.

Overall, I'm impressed with how I have managed this product and I think it has resulted in a successful outcome. I have fulfilled the brief and created something I am proud of, even if there are ways I feel I could improve it. I've managed my time pretty well and come up with an idea that works well.

There are 33 cuts in my film.

Gradual Improvements

When editing and applying sound effects, I've been saving out versions of my film each time, so have several versions of it (each at 20 seconds long). This helps me to show how I've developed it and improved my editing each time, hopefully creating a snappier, 'sharper' version of my film at each export.

Version 1

This version ends quite abruptly, as I was unsure how I was going to edit it. It's snappy, but doesn't actually have enough edits, and the beginning is too long. There's quite a lot of time between each vibrate, and it's resulted in quite an uneven rhythm. Also, there are breaks in the sound effects. It does not feel like there has been too much sound built up, and as a result there's a lack of tension and panic. To improve I needed to add more sounds and more shots, simple. 

Version 2

Here I have added the ending, and added more shots and sounds. Although, you can hear unwanted noise from shots that should really be muted. I felt like the doorbell at the end was too soon, there needed to be more breathing space between the hoover turning off and the doorbell sounding. There's also a difference in the sound of the hoover, as there are two different sound effects playing one after the other, so I needed to source a better version. 

Version 3

In this version I have extended the length of the heartbeat and turned it into one that's continuous and plays throughout, although there are points where it drops out and it can't be heard - this needed to be improved. When I showed this to a friend he also suggested repetitive use of the 'heavy breathing' sound effect, and perhaps shifting it so it's heard quite prominently when the hoover cuts out and fills the time between that and the doorbell sounding. By adding another shot (a drawer being closed) it forced be to trim the existing shots even further, which has resulted in an even snappier edit which is better. 

I'm working on the (hopefully) final version at the moment.

Making Some Tweaks

Once I had (what I considered) a final edit of my film, I started to make some final tweaks. Two of those being doing some colour grading, and "cropping" my film to create a more cinematic look.

Colour Grading
I've had a little bit of experience with colour grading before, but I wouldn't say I am knowledgeable of the skill - there are people who's job is to purely colour grade. What I was aiming for was to sharpen and create deeper contrasts on some of my shots - have "proper" blacks and striking shadows. I played with a few presets that are available, but didn't really like the look of any of them.

Brighten

Contrast

Dew

Fall Sun

I decided to make some manual adjustments. I played with the exposure - the shadows, mid tones and highlights - and the colour levels.

Before correction

After correction

Cropping
In order to adjust any effect in Final Cut Pro X, you must open the 'Inspector'. This is found below the live preview screen (where you can see what you're editing). Once selected, it glows blue and shifts the entire top half of editing windows along to make room for the inspector window.

Once that was open, I expanded the "crop" panel, and started to make adjustments. I knew I wanted to crop the top and the bottom of the frame - to create "black bars" - but I wasn't sure by how many .px I should adjust it. I started to play around, and found that around 100px seemed to work well, so I stuck with that. 

0px, (no crop)

 100px (top and bottom crop)

The Ending

The ending of my film is something that's been bugging me.

I do not want to end abruptly.
I want to "wrap up" the story, in some way.
I don't want to create a whole other tangent of the story.
I don't want to take up too much time and detract time from telling the actual narrative.

In my presentation to the class, where I pitched my idea, I proposed the question "What direction should I take it?". I asked them to tell me the way they thought would be most successful, and they liked the idea of incorporating a failure into the narrative. I liked it too, but I then I thought about how I could do it. Previously on here I've spoken about my worry of over complicating things, and I've got this worry again. Some of my ideas require me to shoot extra footage, and some can be applied straight away.

Here's a few ideas I have:
- The sounding of a doorbell, and a shot of a panicked face and a wide shot of a still messy room.
- Wide shot of a tidy room, relieved face, lighting a candle, sounding of a doorbell.

- The hoover approaches the screen very closely (I already have this shot), and at the closest point there is a dip to black. You can hear the sound of the hoover dying out, heavy breathing and a clock ticking, and after an appropriate pause, the sound of a doorbell ringing or a door knocking.
- The sounding of a doorbell, and a medium shot of feet running and suddenly stopping - a pile of clothes is then dropped, to signify panic and failure.

At the moment, I am leaning towards the idea in bold. I'm drawn to the way it will tie in with the beginning of my film (e.g. the black screen), and will give focus to the sound effects and scope for me to experiment with sound and the feelings they portray further. As well it tying in with the beginning, it will also leave a slight cliff-hanger - even though above I stated I wanted to "wrap up" the story. This leaves it open and could leave you wondering (e.g. did they do it in time?).

Also, I want to avoid any opportunity for rubbish acting...

I'm most certainly not the most dramatic and emotional actor. I don't want to include any more shots containing bad acting...as that's just going to detract from the message I want and not have a positive effect on my film. 

Editing in FCP X

Firstly, I have a title screen and a title.

I've gone for a very simple font, title and positioning, because I didn't want to bring more video into the introduction. The font choice was based on the meaning of the word 'messy', so I went for something handwritten. I did have other, 'messier' versions, but I didn't think they were very legible, so decided on this one. 

I've found myself extremely zoomed in on the timeline...

This is because I've been focusing on trimming shots frame by frame, and have noticed the importance of trimming by this much. It's allowed me to cut out any frames that do not contain any action. For example, a shot where my hand enters the frame and presses a button. If I cut this without zooming right into it and looking frame by frame, I may leave frames that still contain no action by accident. By zooming in, I can see if there is no action within each frame and trim this way, and this has played a huge part in creating a snappy edit. It's allowing me to ensure that there isn't any points that waste time that I could use elsewhere. When you're on tight constraints, you start to appreciate the importance of each frame and become ruthless. I've been removing shots that I like the look of but that just 'don't work', and I think this is making me a better editor. I'm able to separate myself from the edit, even though I'm the one in the film and I'm the one that's shot it, and focus purely on portraying a strong narrative.

Room Tone

I'm editing my film at the moment, and I'm finding the sound aspect of it tricky. There are points where I need to mute the sound from each clip, which is easily done, but it leaves a 'lull' of complete silence. I did some research online about this, and came across the phrases 'room tone' and 'wildtrack'.

These are filmmaking terms that describe the sound a room/location (e.g. a forest) is when it is just left - no other action is taking place, no one is talking etc. This creates the room tone/wild track, which can then be overlaid over an entire scene to avoid these lulls of silence and create consistency through each cut. It also helps to avoid a change in sounds between each cut, again creating consistency. This is the room tone I'm considering using in my film;

Shooting: Day Two

Today I shot some more of my short film. I'm even happier with the results as I was yesterday. I think I'm going to stick with the idea of having an alert/text message appear on a phone, and that shall kickstart the film. I like it because it allows me to contain the film within one location and does not over complicate it. 

I was thinking of varying ways I could shoot things, so as you can see above and below of the broom I shot from the perspective of the broom and towards the camera too. I thought this would make my film a bit more interesting and gives me more scope to play in editing.

I said yesterday I was going to shoot various scenarios for the ending of my film, but I realised today whilst filming that the differing scenarios required completely different shots throughout, and I would essentially be shooting 2 films at once. For example, instead of having a shot of someone tidying shoes I'd have to shoot someone tripping over them. I'd have to do this for every single action shot - the successful way, and the failing way. So, considering time and my preferred direction for my film, I have only shot the "successful" scenario of my film. This keeps the story very simple and should hopefully strengthen it in turn. 

Whilst shooting my film I've been careful to consider framing and depth of field, and I would say that's apparent when you look back over my shots. When I concluded my research I pointed out how one of the strongest ways to convey a message or story immediately was through the framing of the shot, as good composition establishes an immediate heirachy and importance within a shot - it draws your eye to the important part straight away. I hope this strengthens my film.

Whilst shooting, I started to think about sounds. I'm thinking I may try to establish some comedy through my use of sound, and I could do this through comedic sound effects (e.g. cartoon-style "pops" "whoosh" "bangs" etc). I was browsing on Vimeo and found this video;

Obny sound design for Brian Chang 'Garden crash' video from OBNY / Music & Sound design on Vimeo.

I really like this video because of the sounds that are used. Even though it's a stop motion animation video, the use of the sound is over emphasised, is actually the "wrong" sound for the clip (but works) and is funny. I think it's clever how they've used the sound to emphasise a story more so than the actual image. I probably won't use sound this extreme or dramatic, but I like the idea of using emphasised, cartoonish style sounds, as i said before, to highlight an action.

Something like these;