Interacting with comics in digital spaces Exploration into the intersection between interaction design and digital comics Lucas Stenberg Interaktionsdesign Bachelor 22.5HP 2020 Supervisor: Jens Pedersen 2 of 37 Abstract Comics have been around for centuries and have had different cultural meanings depending on era, genre and country. Toward the end of the 20th century and the start of the 21st century, we experienced the rise of the internet as well as the normalization of home computers and with that, comics also started inhabiting the digital space. The digital space opens up for opportunities of multimedia and new ways of interacting with comics, but most comics maintain the formats of their printed counterparts. The goal of this thesis is to contribute knowledge to both interaction design practice as well as digital comics. This is done by conducting research through design and interaction-driven design and through them, launch an exploration into how different interactions affect the experience of reading. User tests as well as a workshop was conducted in order to help articulate the experience. The conclusions reached were that a more active way of interacting (i.e. scrolling for instance) appeared to be preferable to other more static ways of interacting. The usage of the digital space appeared to in some cases enhance the experience of reading but it was closely connected to the nature of the interactions. Keywords: Digital comics, interaction-driven design, Sketching, Interaction design, Infinite canvas. 3 of 37 Acknowledgements I would like to thank the people who participated in testing my sketches as well as attend my workshop and help me articulate the experience. I would also like to direct a big thank you to my supervisor, Jens, who always took the time to talk to me and try and point me in the correct direction, especially during stretches of time when things were difficult, incredible support. I would like to thank Amelie for providing me with emotional support. I would like to direct a thank you to Jakob whom I discussed the intersection between comics and interaction design with previous to the start of the thesis course and who also encouraged me to look into the matter more. 4 of 37 Table of Contents Abstract ............................................................................................................... 2 Acknowledgements ............................................................................................. 3 Table of Contents ................................................................................................ 4 1 Introduction ................................................................................................ 5 1.1 Context .................................................................................................... 5 1.2 Aim ...................................................................................................... 6 1.3 Delimitations ...................................................................................... 6 1.4 Research questions ............................................................................ 6 2 Theory .......................................................................................................... 7 2.1 History of comics................................................................................ 7 2.1.1 History of web comics ....................................................................8 2.2 Between images: time & space ..........................................................8 2.3 The infinite canvas ........................................................................... 10 2.3.1 Constraints of the analogue comic .............................................. 10 3 Related work .............................................................................................. 12 3.1 Scott McCloud .................................................................................. 12 3.1.1 Scott McCloud’s My Obsessions with Chess (N.D) .................... 12 4 Methods ..................................................................................................... 13 4.1 Research through design ................................................................. 14 4.2 Interaction-driven design ................................................................ 15 4.3 Sketching or prototyping ................................................................. 15 4.4 Sketching .......................................................................................... 17 5 Focus group ............................................................................................... 17 5.1 Ethical consideration ....................................................................... 18 6 User tests & workshop .............................................................................. 18 7 Design work ............................................................................................... 18 7.1 Entering into the digital space ........................................................ 19 7.1.1 Purpose ......................................................................................... 19 7.1.2 Tests, insights and improvements ............................................. 20 7.2 Reading in different directions .......................................................22 7.2.1 Purpose .........................................................................................22 7.2.2 Tests, insights and improvements ..............................................23 5 of 37 7.3 Instant collaboration....................................................................... 28 7.3.1 Purpose ........................................................................................ 28 7.3.2 Tests, insights & improvements ................................................. 28 8 Discussion ................................................................................................. 30 8.1 Reflection .......................................................................................... 31 8.1.1 Workshop provided further insights ..........................................32 8.2 Future work ......................................................................................33 9 Conclusions................................................................................................33 10 References ............................................................................................. 35 11 Appendices ................................................................................................36 11.1 Raw interview notes .........................................................................36 11.2 Consent form .................................................................................... 37 1 Introduction 1.1 Context Comics in all its different forms have a large following all across the world and it is a medium that is adaptable to all genres and cultures and it has a rich history. The market for comics had its rise during the late 20th century and has been spiralling downward during the start 21st century, especially for independent artists who are struggling to make a living off of it. The reason for the dwindling market is the rise of other media forms and their accessibility. TV-shows and movies are easily streamed for entertainment and have therefore invaded the market of the comic book. The larget corporations in the comic book world have adapted by televising or making cinematic adaptions of their comics and are therefore staying afloat. The fact of the matter is that with the coming of the internet and the computer, comics have started inhabiting these digital spaces as well, but they have done little in terms of evolutions. VHS and DVDs evolved into streaming sites and shed its old skin whilst comic books are still being printed and their digital counterparts are basically scanned versions. This thesis aims to try and explore the opportunities of the digital space by making use of interaction design methods and try to reach conclusions on whether or not it can enhance the experience of reading comics in the digital space. 6 of 37 1.2 Aim The aim of this thesis is to contribute to the field of interaction design by specifically exploring the intersection between interaction design and digital comics. This is an area which could be explored more in terms of how we interact with the digital space and move through both it and the story. My hope is that this thesis could provide a better understanding of how or why different interactions work and if there is any point in exploring these opportunities more. 1.3 Delimitations This thesis aims to explore the intersection between interaction design and digital comics, therefore, the focus has not been to make an actually worked through or coherent story and emphasize has not been put on how well the art looks. The comic was developed strictly to be able to be used in the different explorative experiments. I have refrained from animating art, working with sound in comics due to the high number of examples that already exist. Certain interactions and experiments have not been documented here due to their likeness to existing comics which was found out during the process, they therefore do not contribute anything new to either community. 1.4 Research questions This project started out in uncertainty, first it was leaning towards beinh an IxD design project aimed at researching and developing a single prototype that would be used for reading