Sourcing Content & Copyright

Whilst developing my ideas for the look of my iBook, I've also been sourcing my content that will help build it up.

Copyright Issues

One of the main issues I've been focusing on is Copyright. There are 1000's upon 1000's of articles of Volcanoes on the Internet, and even more Images. A lot of these are really good images, but they have next to no information on Copyright and whether or not they can be used or not. Whilst I will not be selling my iBook, I still want to adhere to any restrictions and avoid as many problems as possible when it comes to copyright. So, I've been looking at Wikipedia.

At first, that sounds a bit ridiculous. I understand that Wikipedia is not considered a reliable resource, so I haven't been using it to gain any knowledge and write any articles for my iBook - I've been using it for images. I've found that a lot of (and on the subject of Volcanos, the major of) the images on the Wikipedia articles for that subject are 'free in the public domain'. This means that in most cases, credit is not generally required and I am free to do with those images as I please. So, they can feature in my iBook without any big issues. Of course, Wikipedia does not hold the key to a huge gallery of fabulous and suitable Volcano images - they usually only contain a maximum of 4-5 images per article - so I haven't been able to find all of my images here. I've also looked at the NASA site.

Very similar to Wikipedia, NASA supplies images (that they have created themselves) in a public photo gallery that is free for anyone to access. They're free to the public domain and have limited restrictions on their use. Below are some examples of some images I'm considering using in my iBook.

http://nasasearch.nasa.gov/search/images?affiliate=nasa&m=false&query=volcanoes

Videos

I've been looking to Vimeo and YouTube for good educational videos that I can include in my iBook. Below are some that I have decided are appropriate and would fit within my iBook.

Shield Volcanoes

Yellowstone Caldera

Graphics

As far as sourcing Graphics and Graphs goes, I've decided not to do this. I want to create them all myself to fit within my chosen visual style, as I can decide exactly what information to include and have the freedom to truly simplify something or develop it further. I want to stick with flat colours - so steer away from textures as much as possible. Below are some colour schemes that I have picked off of images that I like and that illustrate the sort of look I want to achieve. There aren't too many 'pure' colours there, as I think I may try to add a hint of the 'retro' style in too. 

A Cool Resource

I found this website called www.volcanodiscovery.com  that features the current active & dormant volcanoes around the world. It has a map that marks out where they are.

There is an 'embed' option with some HTML. Through my research I discovered that iBooks Author will allow you to embed HTML from an external source into it, so I will definitely use this within either my 'What is a Volcano?' or 'Famous Volcano' chapters. 

Another really cool feature they have on this website is the ability to view live webcams of current volcanoes - whether they're erupting or not. This is something I'd also like to embed into my iBook, as it's refreshed every single day with up to date information that is reliable, and can be used to back up any points I make. E.g. does a volcano have to be spewing Lava in order to be erupting? No, it can be erupting gas, and there are plenty of Volcanoes on video that do that every single day. 

They also feature what look like very scientific diagrams...another element I could incorporate into my iBook.

http://webcams.volcanodiscovery.com/Gamalama

Decisive Chapters, Sections & Headings

As I've been doing general research into the topic of 'Volcanoes', I've been trying to work out a way of arranging all of that information into specific chapters, sections & headings.

To start it all off, I brainstormed everything I had researched on the topic, any questions I wanted to ask etc.

Digitalisation of my existing Hand-drawn Brainstorm

This covered a lot, so I started to break it down into specific categories. I want to aim towards having at least 4 chapters, so I created 4 questions. I can add more later if I see fit.

▸  What is a Volcano?

This question gives me room to explore the varying types of volcanoes, as we'll as move towards a more 'science' route in the explanation of how they're formed.

▸  Why do they erupt?

Again, from this question I can delve deeper into scientific explanations. There's room for me to use a lot of diagrams and interactions (e.g. animations) that will help explain why they erupt, as well as scope for me to link Volcanoes to other Natural Hazards (Natural Hazards = A subject covered by A-Level students).

▸  What damage do they cause?

Good opportunity for interesting demographics and statistics, as well as animations and videos/interviews from previous explosions and/or peoples experiences.

▸  Are there any famous Volcanoes or Eruptions?

There are a ton of documentaries on Volcanoes, so this will allow me to go in depth on several well known Volcanoes (e.g. Yellowstone National Park) and bring in content from external sources that monitor current active Volcanoes. Good scope for me to explore the history of Volcanic Eruptions and how they've shaped the planet we live on today.

I felt as if these questions gave me a good opportunity to create an iBook that was well rounded and covered a lot of ground within the subject of Volcanoes. If I decided to use these as my Chapter's, after an Introduction chapter and ending with a Conclusive chapter, I then needed to decide the subjects within and start to consider headings & article names. 

Digitalisation of my existing expansion on chapters

Above you can see how I have expanded on each chapter. There looks like a lot, but there's an average of around 5 sections within each Chapter. Each of these sections can now have their own page (or 2....or 3...) and will form my iBook. 

Then I turned all of these chapters and sections into documents, divided by folder by chapter name to make it easy for me to access and import information. As I fill each document with information I will build the content of my iBook page by page. Within these documents I can also apply styles to the text to differentiate between Headings and Subheadings etc. 

Each folder is numbered by the order I'd like it to appear in the iBook, as well as each section within those (see image below). Part of the brief is to create a narrative, and the questions that I initially came up with before I expanded into these sections are designed to run on from each other - a natural progression. They're also titled so they can be skipped to straight away - it's not necessary to read the entire iBook in order for a section to make sense. What I'd like to do, also, is have one page in one chapter (e.g. "What else erupts from Volcanoes?") link to a page from another (e.g. "Volcanic Ash"), to direct the user to a different page in order to find out more information.

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