This diploma thesis presents the process of creating an interactive picture book for children. We created an e-picture book, which is freely accessible on the web in the form of a website. Such interactive contents are not yet widely established.
The diploma thesis is divided into a theoretical and an experimental part. In the theoretical part we characteristics of children’s fairy tales were studied, especially traditional ones from different Slovenian regions, since the decision was made to draw illustrations for one of Slovenian folk tales, a story called White Snake with a Crown. This part is followed by a wider study of illustration in general, as well as different procedures and techniques used by professional illustrators including a review of web design and its basic rules. At the end, the focus lies on interactivity and how to incorporate it into websites.
In the experimental part the process of making the final product was described- an interactive picture book, emphasizing the importance of preliminary preparations and a thorough study of the target audience. The paper continues with an analysis of the creative process. The first part describes how the illustrations were produced. Sixteen different illustrations were made, all in red and blue color, decorated with traditional Slovenian embroidery patterns. The second part describes the web designing process: how a responsive website, that allows interactive picture book to be read from screens of different sizes, was made. The interactive picture book was given its own web domain.
At the end the final product was tested. For evaluation of interactive picture book, ten children were invited to read the story. During reading their reactions were observed according to the pre-defined observation criteria. After reading the story, they were asked to participate in a structured interview.
The results of the test showed, that the product was well accepted, however it also revealed that children were not familiar with interactive fairy tales preferred paper books. Nevertheless, children very quickly adjusted to the idea of reading from the screen. It was the content itself that encouraged them to read the e-story to the end.
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