The Systime iBog: Analysing digital textbooks as designed artefacts

This article proposes a method for critical analysis of design contributions and the material properties of digital textbooks aimed at tertiary schools, in the transition to digital publishing and from paper-based books to digitally available learning materials. The suggested method, adapted from an analytic methodology proposed by design semiotician Giampaolo Proni, is grounded in a material and cultural interdisciplinary perspective on books as designed artefacts. The method, combining close descriptions of material properties, production, use, and cultural framing, is shown to be sufficient for predictive and practical design purposes in an analysis of the digital textbook iBog from the Danish publisher Systime.