Design Guidelines for Electronic Book Production

By many definitions a book may be considered to have a multimedia interface. (See the definitions in Chapter 1). The educational power and value of books would not be disputed, but there is clearly scope for improvement. In particular, a book is not interactive. It is a channel for very remote communication between author and reader. Information technology makes it possible to take all that is good about books and enhance them with the power and interactivity of a computer. This chapter discusses such ‘electronic books’. A significant amount of experience has already been accumulated in this area. Design guidelines have been formulated which are presented in the chapter within the context of four case studies. Some potential future directions of development are also outlined.