9 Interactive Ebook Examples Pushing the Boundaries of Traditional Formats

Offer your audience the physical nature of flipping through pages, but in the digital realm. Introducing: the interactive ebook.

Engaging? Check. Fun? Check. An interactive mode for presenting a structured narrative, guide, or portfolio? Check. An interactive ebook is the perfect format for content that would traditionally work when presented in a physical printed book, pamphlet, or catalogue. It is also a format that can replace outdated slideshows and PDFs, injecting life through interactivity into your content.

We’re going to explore interactive ebook examples that show how digital design transforms conventional storytelling into something more curious and engaging, hooking in readers not only with interesting narratives, but through imaginative visuals and interactivity.

What is an interactive ebook?

When ebooks first gained popularity in the 1990s, they were created with practicality in mind. Typography was simple, interactivity was limited, and layouts were identical to their print counterparts.

Today’s ebooks bring together text, visuals, and interactivity into immersive multimedia experiences. Instead of mimicking machine set type and strict page grids, interactive ebooks tap into the creative freedom of pixels in telling stories where readers feel like they’re part of the action.

Here are a few ideas of the content an interactive ebook can be used to present:

• A fiction or non-fiction story
• A comic
• A 101 guide
• A photo-essay
• Any structured narrative

Interactive ebook examples to inspire your next web creation

Rare Disease Realities: Patient Perspectives Across the EU - Politico

Illness can be a sensitive topic to talk about but leading with empathy and compassion can have a big impact on humanizing those who are going through health issues. Politico’s ebook Rare Disease Realities: Patient perspectives Across the EU, built with Vev, tells the stories of those facing uncommon illnesses in a way that feels personal. Filled with the scrawl of pencil-like drawings, inky hand lettering, paper textures, and audio of people with rare diseases speaking about what they’re going through, these stories feel honest and relatable. We love seeing interactive ebook examples like Politico’s that utilize modern web design in creating web experiences that are meaningful and resonate with others.

Storytime with Nigel

For those with little ones, bedtime can be a challenge. Storytime With Nigel and its interactive ebook examples like, “The Sleep Wizard” and “Treasure of Dream Island” contain beautifully animated worlds of gentle visuals and easy-going storytelling, that won’t only get your children drifting off to sleep, but may lead you too in turning in early for the night.

Welcome to PinePoint

Equal parts journalism and introspection, Welcome to PinePoint tells the story of the Canadian town of PinePoint and the people who lived there. PinePoint was once an orderly slice of suburbia, but went into disrepair and vanished after the mine it was built around shutdown.

With its grainy deteriorating VHS footage, fading photographs, voiceovers, and text that looks like it’s glued into place, it has the feel of a multimedia scrapbook. The storytelling conveys a somber, dreamlike quality, reminiscent of our own fragmented childhood memories, making one nostalgic and longing for places that may not have even existed in the ways that we remember them. With its DIY outsider aesthetic, it’s one of the most inventive and imaginative ebook examples we’ve seen.

Perennial

When we think of office buildings, most of us envision monoliths of concrete, glass, and metal rising from the city, separate from the outside world. Perennial is made from the same raw materials, but brings in plants, light, and open space, offering commercial space in Austin, TX that feels upscale and organic.

Perennial’s digital brochure evokes its modern meets nature architectural style. A horizontal scroll offers panels of content touched with textures like stone, the greenery of leaves, and other elements of the outside world. Parallax animations further add to its tactile feel, giving a real-world sense of depth as visitors move through.

If you’re looking for interactive ebook examples that blend storytelling with marketing, Perennial shows how effective this format can be in communicating a brand’s identity and reaching a wider audience.

Poor Charlie’s Almanack: The Essential Wit and Wisdom of Charles T. Munger

Charles T. Munger, the black-spectacled economic whiz who once served as vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, not only knew business but had deep insights into human psychology. This comprehensive ebook Poor Charlie’s Almanack: The Essential Wit and Wisdom of Charles T. Munger collects eleven of his talks, that are an interesting read even for those who don’t particularly get excited about business.

This is one of the most text-heavy interactive ebook examples we came across, but design features like split layouts, scroll-triggered fade-ins, and multi-image parallax effects add action to the user experience, preventing it from feeling overwhelming. It shows that even long and dense web designs can still provide visitors with lively and engaging experiences.

The Search for Work Happiness

We live in a time where there’s an increased focus on making workspaces healthier places. Search for Work Happiness is an excellent ebook for leaders, covering important ways they can improve company culture and help out their employees in improving their sense of well being.

Each chapter is a point in a beautifully illustrated cityscape, tackling different work situations and how to deal with them by keeping employees’ best interests in mind. The Search for Work Happiness, with its audio of the author offering his insights in a friendly southern drawl, colorful drawings, and touches of animation, makes it one of the coolest and most creative interactive ebook examples in the realm of business.

Oggy!

Oggy! is the tale of a green dinosaur, and the life changes that happen when a new baby arrives. Each panel in this horizontal scroll has a playful color scheme telling the story of their life together. There’s also some cute animations, like porridge being flung and bubbles floating from a soapy tub.

This is one of the most touching interactive ebook examples we’ve come across whose brilliant illustrations capture the heartwarming and sometimes bittersweet feelings of growing up.

The Future of Extended Reality

Extended reality, or XR, adds new dimensions to how we see the world, offering not only fully immersive computer-generated spaces to explore, but also overlaying digital elements over the physical world when viewed through high-tech glasses. The Future of Extended Reality from Noom Agency, provides a broad overview into the social and marketing implications of XR in a design rich with visuals and interactivity.

Its aesthetic is an inventive blending of new and old. Vector lines, hazy pixelated backgrounds, and 80s typefaces are combined with modern touches like splashy scroll-triggered animations. Interactive ebook examples like Nooms’ show the power of juxtaposing different design styles in creating compelling stories that stand out in their uniqueness.

RSPCA

What will the world look like for animals in the year 2050? RSPCA Animal Futures, foresees the future for three different animals featuring Ginger the Fox, Queenie the Cow, and Max the Dog. This website is a wonderful hybrid of storytelling and visuals, combining conventional text with an expansive and detailed three-dimensional world.

Create stand-out interactive ebooks in Vev

Vev offers everything you need to create interactive content—without code. Drag blocks into your layout from Vev’s library, add the words to your story, and pick and customize animations and interactions from Vev’s huge selection of presets. Whatever story you have to tell, and however you want it to be experienced, Vev offers all of the tools you need in creating compelling narrative-driven websites.