Sonacirema Book
I’ve written and edited an adaptation for children's book of the essay “Body Ritual Among the Nacirema” by Horace Miner.
"Sonacirema" is an Illustrated Children’s Book. It was adapted to a double narrative: one side of the book presents the foreigner's point of view (directly adapted from Horace Miner’s article) and the other side presents the native's point of view about the same cultural aspects. In order to emphasize the counterpoint between "one side"/"other side" and to arouse interest for the different ways of reading the story, the book was designed in special format: as accordion.
This project had the fundamental collaboration of Professor Andréia Resende, illustrator Vinícius Gerheim and proofreader Cecília Cruz.
Process
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Literary research
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Ideation
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Exploratory Interviews
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Text adaptation
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Accordion Format
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Meetings with the illustrator
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Editorial tests
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Book writing and edition
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Prototyping
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Reading tests with children
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Identify and solve usability issues
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Negotiations with Publishing houses
Project & Product Design
Story
I have a special fondness for this project because it was where I discovered myself as a product designer. The Sonacirema Book project was my first project where my approach was as a product designer. From the empathic phase until the negotiation phase I was thinking and working to create a new product to be sold by a business to its customers. I’ve learned a lot during the entire process about creating a solid product for clients, customers and readers (in this case: publishing houses, parents and children).
I’ve really enjoyed the full process even with the challenges and with the bad moment of the Brazilian children’s book environment. I was able to learn from my mistakes, turning them into opportunities to further enhance my skills. Through this, I managed to rediscover the path and improve as a professional and creator.
My favorite part of the process was the maker part. Analyze, Idealize, write, edit to transform the book into a product that had the main goal was to deliver a product with the best user experience I could provide. And that includes the fun factor.
Children reading Sonacirema Book
Fun as a UX resource
Fun was one of the keys to the project's success. Fun engages users, leading to increased loyalty, longer usage times, and, ultimately, better business outcomes. Additionally, fun eases frustration. I incorporated fun as a UX resource with:
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Gamification associated with the book's format
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Playful design elements with illustrations and the contrasting color and style on both sides of the book
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Surprising and delighting users with a hidden easter egg, linguistic games, and breaking expectations in the text and illustrations.
Assembly diagram of the accordion book
Paper testing of accordion format
Main decisions
Thus, throughout the course of the project, one of my primary focuses was to design a book that could elevate and deepen the reading experience. One of the main decisions was to choose the accordion format . This provided high interactivity, several reading options and (of course) great fun factor. It gives the reader the choice to build their own reading path around two views of the same story. They can read one part first and then read the other part. They can mix the two sides of the story by reading a bit of each side. They can make a “star” on the floor to play and read without a specific sequence. The options are infinite or nearly so.
