Digital Pop-Up Books?

Alice in Wonderland for the iPad is basically a digital pop-up book, just without the third-dimension. At first the interactivity might seem a bit frivolous, distracting from the text more than complimenting it, but if you look at it more like a pop-up book, or a new art form, rather than judging its merits by comparing it to the experience of reading a straight novel, I think how awesome this is becomes a little clearer.

If you take this idea and use photos and video rather than drawings, and apply it in a more mature way, you can create a whole new genre of publishing, something that seamlessly combines text with art, interactivity, and instant access. Right now, the closest thing to this kind of interface outside of iPhone apps are fancy Flash websites, but if you shift the focus from web content to just content, minimizing the need for broadband connections and moving away from the idea that you're looking at a website, you can end up with a product that pulls people in more deeply and profoundly, that's used and perceived differently and in different situations. Essentially, you create a new kind of user, a new market, a new genre, something that's neither completely a book, a game, or a website.

It'll be interesting to see how this kind of interactive story develops on the iPad. Someone should start a blog about it. If you do, contact me at chris@chamberimages.com and let me know about it!