Point of View


POINT OF VIEW


The appropriate approach for creating augmented reality content for children


WORDS Japhet Asher


O


VER THE COURSE of my career, I’ve been an Oscar-nominated documentary maker, an Emmy-winning animation producer, a


feature film screenwriter, a Hollywood studio execu- tive, a BBC digital lead, a games creator and an interactive storyteller. I’m now a director of an inde- pendent book publisher. I’ve repeatedly reinvented myself, while adding new skills and experiences to my arsenal. Yet these reinventions have always been in the service of the same ideal: connecting creative ideas, stories and people with their audiences. I’ve found that the most important part of achieving this goal is in understanding what is appropriate—in terms of stle, tone, technology, budget and plat- form—to reach that targeted reader, viewer, player and/or consumer.


When I worked at BBC Children’s, we used to ask what I called the “appropriate” question in job inter- views: “What subjects would you define as being off-limits for children’s programmes?” You could see candidates’ eyes widen as they considered the possibilities. Child abuse? Pornography? Genocide? The answer, of course, is none of the above. Any subject can be approached in an appropriate way for children to understand it. In fact, one of the reasons I joined the BBC was for its commitment to provid- ing the same set of genres and formats for children as the broadcaster provided for adults—news, docu- mentaries, drama, entertainment, the arts and so on. I never expected kids to be the primary audience for my work. But kids are far more open-minded than grown-ups about innovation and creativit. They will try new things and explore new ideas. It is an incredibly exciting place to work if you value the chance to experiment and innovate. This doesn’t mean that kids like “odd for odd’s sake”, or want constant experimentation. On the contrary, kids value traditional narrative strengths, such as strong characters and coherent storylines. They need famil- iar foundations and clear signposts. But with those elements in place, children will join you on amaz- ing creative journeys, and bring their own fertile and flexible imaginations to the mission.


I also hadn’t expected to join a book publisher aſter a number of years in broadcast and digital media, but I immediately recognised kindred spir- its in the team at Carlton Books. Across a range of genres and formats, the unifying characteristic of Carlton’s publishing is the constant reinvention of what a book can be. A Carlton book is always more than just a book. We are now taking that aspiration to new levels by combining digital technology with the long-established strengths of print. Carlton has become the leading publisher worldwide of books that incorporate Augmented Realit. At Carlton, we say these titles are “Powered by Digital Magic”, and we’ve sold more than 3.5 million copies of them in more than 30 countries to date.


Why have we been so successful? First, because we picked subjects for our Digital Magic books that are appropriate for the technology. Our iExplore series of Natural History titles brings the world’s wildlife— from life-size dinosaurs to woolly mammoths to bald eagles—into your living room. You can read about them on the page, then use that page as a launchpad for an immersive digital experience. Our entertain- ment titles invite TV and movie characters into your home. AR lets us ground the extraordinary in the familiar, which makes it a wonderfully appropriate experience for young readers. Second, AR technology is inherently safe, simple


to use, social and shareable, and it delivers content that combines the best of what digital offers with the most tried and trusted content-delivery mechanism in history: the printed page. It’s no wonder teachers are using our iExplore titles in schools, even though we designed them for the home. Finally, in an age where screens dominate the conversation—and parents wring their hands over what is suitable for their children—we have created an appropriate path from the screen back to the book, offering kids the best of both worlds. A couple of years ago, many parents were shocked


by a viral video that showed a toddler tapping a magazine, expecting it to respond like an iPad. That toddler, and millions like her, is the child for whom we are making books, which is why we are reinvent- ing what a book can be. We are doing it in a way that is appropriate for kids and appropriate for the content we create for them, which means we’ll keep evolving how we use digital and print together. We are reinventing books, not replacing them.


Japhet Asher is the digital director of Carlton Books. Its latest Augmented Reality title, Jack Challoner’s iExplore the Brain (9781780978901, r.r.p. £9.99), was published in August


www.thebookseller.com


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