Initial Ideas
It was now time to start experimenting with way that I could convey my modern portrayal of an 'Arabian Nights' story. I have chosen to use 'the Tale of the Three Apples' as I feel I can relate several aspects to issues in the modern Arab world.
Analysing my initial ideas (click images to enlarge)
Idea 1
I want to highlight the negative views of the Arab world that western media currently portrays. I feel that using a mock newspaper layout would make that clear to my audience right from the start. By using the aesthetic of a digital newspaper, my portrayal instantly becomes modern. One issue that I wanted to convey with this, was the fact that Western media always finds a way to bring Islam into news stories concerning Arabs. With this in mind, I would use mock headlines on each page twisting the original tale - such as ''Muslim man finds decapitated body of woman in Saudi Arabia''. As I want to incorporate another form of media, I chose to include a video news report in the article (1a and 1b), as seen in current electronic newspapers. This news report would be made up of images of the 'suspect' (Caliph Harun Al-Rashid) and voice-over commentary that I could record. In 1b I explored including an image box where users could swipe through pictures used in the news report, for more interactive control.
I want to highlight the negative views of the Arab world that western media currently portrays. I feel that using a mock newspaper layout would make that clear to my audience right from the start. By using the aesthetic of a digital newspaper, my portrayal instantly becomes modern. One issue that I wanted to convey with this, was the fact that Western media always finds a way to bring Islam into news stories concerning Arabs. With this in mind, I would use mock headlines on each page twisting the original tale - such as ''Muslim man finds decapitated body of woman in Saudi Arabia''. As I want to incorporate another form of media, I chose to include a video news report in the article (1a and 1b), as seen in current electronic newspapers. This news report would be made up of images of the 'suspect' (Caliph Harun Al-Rashid) and voice-over commentary that I could record. In 1b I explored including an image box where users could swipe through pictures used in the news report, for more interactive control.
Idea 2
One of the layouts I looked at in my layout research page consisted of a text in the form of steam coming out of a tea pot. I liked the idea of altering the shape of the story text to fit relevant illustrations. Therefore, in 2a I shaped the text from the start of the story as apples, as this introduced the main aspect of the story (and title). However, looking back at this page, I think I could have used more minimalistic placement, as it doesn't look very clean. However, with page 2b, I have done this. I really like the fact that the story text is carefully used to create the chest. It highlights the importance of the chest, to accompany the progress of the story, and also looks more aesthetically tight. In this page I have also used a modern representation of an Arab man, portraying him wearing a thobe (common everyday clothing in the Middle East).
Idea 3
Another illustrative layout I looked at in my research was a lithographic poster of 'Alice in Wonderland' created using only text from the story. This was achieved by changing the font colour of specific areas of the overall passage of text. With this in mind, I attempted to do this with 'the Tale of the Three Apples'. With page 3a, I tried creating an image of an apple within the block of text, and also an example of a key phrase from the story (''ugly slave''). However, this did not work out very well, mainly due to my choice of placement, but also due to the leading of the text being too large. So with page 3b, I tried using very tight leading, which made the key phrase (''19 pieces'') alot more clear. Unfortunately, I still don't like the look of this page, as cramping up the paragraphs just looks messy and would fail from a functional standpoint. I also decided to break up parts of the paragraph to represent the 19 pieces of the woman's dismembered body - yet I also don't like the look of this.
Idea 4
After looking at a minimalist layout in my research, I wanted to experiment with this. I chose to place all the story text on the left 1/3 of the page, which the user may scroll. 4a is how the beginning of the story would look, with the title placed in the open space on the right. This right space is actually also scrolling column of illustrations, which follows the text, at a slower speed. As the user scrolls through the story, the right column will automatically scroll along, revealing overflowing illustrations at key points (see 4b). I like the clean, simple layout of this design. In 4b I also tried adding an interactive element, where the user swipes open the chest, revealing the body themselves. If I was to follow through with this design, I would need to see wether this would be a realistic technical aspect I could achieve in InDesign.
Idea 5
When looking at interactive e-Books, I came across ''Who Stole the Moon'', an immersive book for children. I thought it would be interesting to implement the same idea of having a game-like mechanic in my adult e-Book. In idea 5, the screen will always be blank with only a magnifying glass, that the user must drag around the page. They must try find the start of that specific page's story text, and in some cases they will get an illustrative surprise (5b). 'The Tale of the Tree Apples' has a main theme of investigation, sometimes described as a 'whodunnit' story, with the Ja'azar being tasked to find the murderer of the woman. With this concept, I'm embracing this theme and giving the user a fully immersive experience that will keep them interested. However, this biggest problem about this idea is the technical aspect. I am not sure how I would achieve this using InDesign. Like design 4, I would need to do more research on this if I were to go further with this design.
Idea 6
After looking at an ambitious idea, I wanted to try another simple, yet relevant idea. With idea 6, I thought about having the entire story translated into Arabic. I could find this online, or translate my copy using an online translator. I am also currently taking Arabic lessons, which may prove beneficial to this project, as I could seek advice from my tutor. As the user scrolls the Arabic text upwards (either using the right-hand scroll bar, or just swiping up the page), extracts will be translated into English as they enter the white box. This will make reading the story more comfortable for some as they are only given a small amount of text at a time, as some find a page full of text overwhelming. Looking at 'Pride and Prejudice and Zombies's use of side-by-side comparison made me want to explore this. In 6b, you can see that as the user scrolls up to a key moment, the white box will turn into a video/image. For this, I could use a mock news report, as I was going to use in Idea 1. However, I feel that this design is lacking is visual creativity, besides the translating aspect, there is nothing special about it.
Idea 5
When looking at interactive e-Books, I came across ''Who Stole the Moon'', an immersive book for children. I thought it would be interesting to implement the same idea of having a game-like mechanic in my adult e-Book. In idea 5, the screen will always be blank with only a magnifying glass, that the user must drag around the page. They must try find the start of that specific page's story text, and in some cases they will get an illustrative surprise (5b). 'The Tale of the Tree Apples' has a main theme of investigation, sometimes described as a 'whodunnit' story, with the Ja'azar being tasked to find the murderer of the woman. With this concept, I'm embracing this theme and giving the user a fully immersive experience that will keep them interested. However, this biggest problem about this idea is the technical aspect. I am not sure how I would achieve this using InDesign. Like design 4, I would need to do more research on this if I were to go further with this design.
Idea 6
After looking at an ambitious idea, I wanted to try another simple, yet relevant idea. With idea 6, I thought about having the entire story translated into Arabic. I could find this online, or translate my copy using an online translator. I am also currently taking Arabic lessons, which may prove beneficial to this project, as I could seek advice from my tutor. As the user scrolls the Arabic text upwards (either using the right-hand scroll bar, or just swiping up the page), extracts will be translated into English as they enter the white box. This will make reading the story more comfortable for some as they are only given a small amount of text at a time, as some find a page full of text overwhelming. Looking at 'Pride and Prejudice and Zombies's use of side-by-side comparison made me want to explore this. In 6b, you can see that as the user scrolls up to a key moment, the white box will turn into a video/image. For this, I could use a mock news report, as I was going to use in Idea 1. However, I feel that this design is lacking is visual creativity, besides the translating aspect, there is nothing special about it.
