Moonbot – Evolution of Storytelling

The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore iPad App Trailer from Moonbot Studios on Vimeo.

There has been a lot of talk of the iPad “killing” the traditional book, and how children will read in a completely new way in the future. I’ve experimented with a few of these examples, including a gorgeous four year old proudly reading us a book off her jet-lagged parents’ iPad this summer, but until recently I haven’t seen many examples that have surprised me.

Moonbot is a gorgeous example of animation, interactivity and storytelling merging into the same medium. While I don’t have an iPad and therefore haven’t spent a lot of time with the story, there is obviously some gorgeous magic here that is a sign for things to come in the future.

Inkling is a company pushing electronic textbooks, a concept much promised, but mostly failed, especially in the Kindle market. There are a couple of great articles by the company outlining how and why they have developed the e-books, and like the children’s story above, there are some simple, yet powerful insights.

Interactivity not “just” an add on

The internet has always been fairly limited from the perspective of a flat screen, with the usual text and visual communication now pasted into an interactive format that allows a non linear flow through information. The medium and presentation of information for the most part has not evolved significantly, it has always been the relationships between information and the access or flow of that content that is incredible within the vast inter webs.

What apps like above suggest, is that more complex development of content, can allow a different style of delivery that encourages an audience to engage in the information in unique, and possibly more immersive ways.

My personal interest is on many fronts, but through the lens of this blog and the discussions of biomimicry I can’t help but wonder how much more accessible scientific content would be if good review papers looked more like Moonbot. Asknature is the online biology database that communicates nature in functional terms accessible by designers. It is a superb resource for biological information, but has not yet figured out how best to communicate those stories in accessible ways.

While the Science and Design dialogue has stalled recently, lacking a better platform to foster conversations, I am seeing an end goal that might look more like a Moonbot, than a paper. Any thoughts out there?

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