In my research, I'm trying to find different ways to give the users that "immersive" experience. Since I haven't read my book (in progress) I'm trying to absorb as much as I can so that as I am reading, I can imagine what I might do. When reading about developers of these immersive fiction books process, they continuously comment on enhancing the reader's experience rather than just giving them extra information because they can. Which, like our previous posts suggest, there is a lot of banter about whether or not it is a good thing. One author suggests that too much of an immersive experience is not a great thing:
"To me, these findings strongly suggest that integrating video, audio and interaction into e-books may not be immersive—keeping the reader engaged in a story. Rather, they might be subversive—distracting readers from the rich internal world that prose can construct within the reader’s mind."
So I think it is important to find that balance and not go too overboard with the immersive/hyper experience we are going for with these books. For us as designers, I think the challenge is to keep it simple enough that the reader doesn't get confused by the content and interesting enough that they can have that, "ah-ha" moment that perhaps they better gain from a non-linear experience within the book.
