Kinetic Books

I spent almost ten years working on Kinetic Books. The company was built on the idea that we could make educational books and materials more accessible and affordable. The logical step in modern education was to digitize all textbooks. This allowed us to provide animated diagrams, videos, and video game-like labs. We were well ahead of the curve and I still think the modern world has yet to catch up to the dreams we had. Naturally if you had any children of school age during the pandemic, I think you’ll have a good idea how nice it would have been for parents and teachers alike if we had the digital system in place.

This is an example a page about oscillation for physics. If you clicked on the image on the left, it would loaded a lesson for the student to walk through the concept. The image on the right would go through the equations needed, and the final section would put it in real world use. At the end of the chapters would be labs to experiment with the chapter’s teachings.

The textbooks took learning to the next level. You visually see the equations and dimensions. The book allowed highlighting, note taking, and complete with audio. Fully accessible and built to work on computers and mobile devices. There was also unified homework and test taking system that all schools taking part could access the data to help make better questions and research to improve the books. Digital textbooks also would have made it possible to keep all content up to date, reaching poorer school systems who are often stuck with old textbooks. Updates could be made yearly.

Here are some examples of the lessons:

Here are some examples of the labs:

As this was a start-up, I wore many hats beyond creative director. I handed all marketing, branding, style guides, and ran a team of up to 8 designers. I worked closely with developers, IT, and the writers to insure we told a uniform story. I also was very hands on in the designs, animations, CX, and UX.