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.