A friend of mine has asked me to turn his book into an iPad application.
The first thing I asked him was “Why do you want an iPad application when you can have an ebook that is available across multiple devices?”
He replied with “Because I want a cool book.”
I can’t argue with that.
So now I’ve got a bunch of high definition videos and high resolution images, a printed copy of the book and a word document containing all of the content.
From here I figure the first task will be to sketch out all of the interaction design for the iPad, and organise the content into a format that is compelling reading/viewing and not based on the constraints of the printed media.
Unfortunately I’m without an iPad myself, which may very well be a difficult place to start building this. But what I lack in hand held technology I make up for with experience in interaction design, and mainly around what DOESN’T work.
So step one, I’m off to my pen and paper to sketch some layout and navigational ideas before I turn towards omnigraffle to do a little bit more polishing, and then it’s head first.
I’m still trying to decide whether to use Starks jqtouch, or try out the baker framework. I’ve had a friend suggest using InDesign and Digital Content Bundler, but I’m thinking that sticking with HTML5, CSS3 and a bit of javascriptery will get the best results.