The Last Few, a portrait book of living WW II Battle of Britain veterans, uses a smartly done Flash-based interface to allow prospective buyers to “flick through” the book (be sure to grab and pull the top or bottom corner of a page with your mouse).
What’s interesting about this, other than the grace of the effect itself (not unlike the British Library’s Turning the Pages interface) is the way it has had to reconceive the traditional bookstore browsing experience. In a brick-and-mortar store, you can “flip through” the whole of a book and generally take as long you like; open access is mediated by the fact that it is finally only temporary and you can’t take the book away with you without purchasing it. Here, however, the book comes to you as often as you like via your Web browser, so access must be modulated by selectivity of the sample.
Posted by mgk at June 20, 2005 01:06 PMI'm having a great time with the discovery you've prompted at the British Library's "Turning the Pages," but the link you've provided for "The Last Few" takes me only to a "dead" page. Several atttempts at tracking down another entrance aren't getting me very far. Any further suggestions? Maybe some version of software is missing on my machine or this is an electronic book that needs first to be purchased before it can be viewed, or am I missing some obvious turn along the way? -mg
Mary,
The link to The Last Few works fine for me. Check that you have Flash installed with your browser.
I noticed that same technique on the new U2/Anton Corjbin collection at http://www.u2-corbijn.com/start.html It certainly is a nicer experience (and loads faster) than the Amazon.com approach to browsing.
Posted by: Amy at June 30, 2005 05:38 PM | Link to Comment