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elements recalled significantly less narrative details than children who read print
versions of the same topics [5]. Conversely, Labbo and Kuhn [12] found that e-books,
which integrated corresponding interactivity into the content of the story, were found
to elevate the comprehension of children.
Additionally, it was found that features such as narration, sound effects and
animation, which support the text, help to remove the effort from decoding individual
words and allow children to focus on meaning [13, 14]. Digital topics are known for
their non-linear storytelling potential, which means “the telling of a story with an
audience impact on the storyline, but not on the story goal or the end of the story” [3].
Therefore, one design approach to tap into this potential is to allow for the reader to
intervene within storylines, and to try and match the content of the story to the visual
elements. These audience-based actions may be resources for enjoyment and
engagement and a method to reinforce the understanding of the story.
3.1
A Reading Application for Arabic Children (Trees of Tales)
The design of the reading application 'Trees of Tales' included Arabic traditional
folktales in order to elevate the interest of Arabic children in the reading. Game
elements are added to the application to provide playful experiences that encourage
children to continue with the reading. Additionally, to provide flexibility of place and
time for reading, we decided to use the iPad as a platform for the application.
'Trees of Tales' aims to provide Arabic children aged eight and above with a
collection of interactive stories that motivate them to read for pleasure and that are
based in their culture. The application also provides children with the option of
creating new stories using the characters and backgrounds that are available in the
existing stories. It includes interactivity such as dragging and dropping objects to the
scene that aimed to keep children engaged. One of the main design considerations in
Trees of Tales was to ensure that children were actually reading the stories while
engaging with the interactive features available. To this end, children are asked to set
the scene and manage a few actions in the story such as selecting and positioning the
relevant pose of the character on the scene and adjusting the emotional state of the
characters in correspondence with the text. Only if the scene is set in accordance with
the text, the next page of the story will unlock.
Feedback was also provided to children when their choice of actions was wrong.
For example, a selected character would not stick on the background and return to its
previous position if moved to a wrong position. Similarly, when children looked for
the hiding thieves in Joha's first story, a sad sound tune assisted children to recognise
a wrong position. Ultimately, when the scene was completed according to the text, the
Next Button appeared green and a jingle indicated that the child could proceed to the
next page. Similar design elements and the Next Button existed on every page. Screen
shots of a story page of 'Trees of Tales' showing the interactions are illustrated in
Figure 1. If children changed a critical element that made the scene contradict with
the storyline, the green button turned back to red again to indicate that there was
something incorrect in the scene and the next page was locked again. However,
children were able to be creative by adding other images or re-arranging the scene in a
way that did not affect the storyline.
