While ebooks encompass everything from academia to immersive fictional worlds, one thing they all have in common is that they need to connect with people the moment that they arrive. We’re going to take a look at what goes into creating engaging ebook covers, as well as examples showing how design can hook people in and draw them into the important stories or information you want them to experience.
What is an interactive ebook cover?
While traditional books are limited to typography and artwork in capturing people’s attention and giving only a hint as to what’s inside, ebooks take full advantage of what’s possible with digital design. Through interactivity, dynamic visuals, and multimedia, they draw readers in on multiple levels, offering deeper context through multi-sensory experiences.
The importance of interactive ebook cover design
Interactive ebook cover design not only needs to convey the essence of the topic or story that readers are going to follow, but give them reasons to start scrolling. As well as acting as a starting point that guides visitors forward, ebook covers also tell readers the basic controls they’ll use in navigating through.
Elements of ebook cover design
Created with Vev, Your Ageing Out discusses how the digestive system changes as we get older. Its ebook cover design, featuring a soft-brushed illustration of a stomach, warm colors, and stylized typography, gives it a personal feel.
Content anchors
Timelines, chapters, or other categorized clickable elements allow readers to jump to specific sections, giving them control over how they experience an ebook’s content.
Hero visuals
Ebook cover design often features full-screen background photos, illustrations, videos, or other graphics that introduce what they’re about.
UI elements
Ebook cover design utilizes UI symbols like arrows and other icons, along with quick instructions guiding visitors into how to engage.
Creative interactions
Not every interaction needs to have a clear purpose. Features like 3D graphics that shift when visitors scroll over, scroll-triggered animations that kick into action, and other dynamic effects can add to the tone and personality.
Audio
Utilizing ambient sounds, background music, and audio cues can evoke emotion and give visitors feedback as they move through.
Animated transitions
An ebook cover design represents a starting point. Animated transitions like opacity shifts, changes in background color, parallax scrolling, and other visual effects that signal to readers that they have stepped into the story.
Best practices for your interactive ebook cover designs
Provide a clear beginning
An introduction should tell readers what to expect, capture their attention, and inspire them to explore further.
Keep it simple
When designing the cover page for an ebook, you don’t want to overpower visitors with too much. Go for a clean interactive ebook cover design, with clear focal points.
Set the tone
Ebook cover design should communicate the mood right away. Animations, audio, photos, typography, and other elements should make it apparent if it’s going to be light-hearted or more serious.
Be consistent
Ebook cover design and the typography, artwork, interactions, images, UI, and other elements that are a part of it should fit in seamlessly with the rest of the user experience.
9 Ebook Cover Designs to Inspire You
1. The Encyclopaedia of Peace Education Modules in Indonesia
K-Hub’s mission is to promote religious tolerance in Indonesia. In their pursuit of creating peace and understanding, they develop curriculum, training programs, and other resources to help guide young people away from extremist views. The Encyclopaedia of Peace Education Module in Indonesia discusses the importance of what they do and the teaching materials they develop.
Running through this ebook is the theme of knowledge, and the cover sets the tone with its cross-sectional view into a library. Clickable hotspots are dotted across the shelves and other parts of the space, letting people explore different facets of their organization and what they teach. Visitors also get the option to scroll down in going further.
Even in the realm of education, there are plenty of opportunities to get creative. This ebook cover design, with its detailed illustrations and interactions communicates K-Hub’s commitment to promoting acceptance and fostering diversity.
2. Kerrygold the Magic Pantry
Put together by the butter brand Kerrygold, the Magical Pantry combines interactive storytelling with cooking. It’s an imaginative piece of branded content, putting visitors at the center of the narrative, leading them to recipes made with Kerrygold’s butter.
The experience begins with a green book, embossed in gold, its surface shimmering with stars like an enchanted fairy tale. Instead of simply opening the book with a click or scroll, visitors must drag an arrow across a dotted line. This interaction builds suspense, allowing visitors to fully appreciate the mystical qualities of the visuals.
3. Frank Gehry: Architectural Visionary and Master of Deconstruction
While it’s generally not recommended to open up a website with someone holding up their middle finger, in the case of Frank Gehry, an architect as famous for his deconstructivist inspired buildings as he was for his blunt personality, it’s a fitting introduction as well as one of his most iconic moments. And if this point isn’t strong enough, Gehry’s image scales up as one scrolls, reinforcing the message that he was a man of strong opinions. Along with its scroll-triggered visuals, a timeline of years sits at the top, letting visitors jump to different eras of his career and learn about his accomplishments.
This ebook cover design also features a concrete gray color palette and a header rendered in the art-deco inspired typeface Onset. It’s a nice juxtaposition that befits an architect like Gehry, whose public persona often contradicted the artistry of his work.
4. The Story of Sarga
With a scene of floating clouds, a baby eel swimming, and the text “START SCROLLING” floating in the current, the ebook cover design for The Story of Sarga, built with Vev, feels open and inviting. As visitors first scroll, text appears on screen with the title, before a subtle animated transition darkens the water, bringing them to a screen of warm blue representing the Sargasso Sea where eels hatch and the story begins.
The introductory screen of aquatic life and its scroll-triggered visuals serves as an artful introduction, inspiring curiosity and encouraging visitors to learn about the wondrous lives of eels.
5. Oat the Goat
With the sound of chirping birds and the music of strings swelling in an uplifting melody the ebook cover for the interactive children’s story Oat the Goat draws our gaze to the top of a snowy peak. A ring of circles fades in and out, focusing our attention and beckoning us to click. From this point, we descend into a far-off valley where Oat the Goat stares at this same mountain. This animated sequence works with distance and space, showing us where Oat the Goat’s destination is while placing us at the very start of his journey.
We not only love the interactive storytelling but also appreciate the message of acceptance which weaves its significance through the beautiful visuals.
6. Decriminalize Poverty in Tennessee
It can be difficult to try and see the world from the perspectives of those who haven’t had the same opportunities as we have. Decriminalize Poverty in Tennessee is a story that shows how something even as inconsequential, like getting a speeding ticket, can have a huge impact if you don’t make enough money.
With its concise text, this ebook cover design perfectly encapsulates its story. The opening illustration of people together in a park is a further reminder that no matter our economic advantages or disadvantages, we’re all the same.
7. Venus Project
After an intro animation that shows a brief glimpse of a classical painting of Venus, one lands on the cover screen of the ebook Venus - The Story of the Goddess. There’s an elegant sense of simplicity with the title text in the neoclassical serif Ogg, and three quick points of what this ebook covers about Venus, and why someone should read it. A simple scroll arrow points users to move through this horizontal space filled with information about Venus’ mythology, her significance in art history, along with a variety of brilliant scroll-triggered animations and parallax effects.
8. Persepolis
With a low swirling fog and background music of droning strings and trilling wind instruments Persepolis Reimagined has a cinematic feel, building intrigue the moment someone arrives.
The scene opens in darkness, but as visitors begin scrolling, light begins to break through, as though the sun is rising to reveal Persepolis from the shadows. It signals the beginning of an adventure, while inviting readers into all that is Persepolis’ glory.
9. Abstract Intelligence
If you’re a creative, you’ve undoubtedly been asked by friends, family, and colleagues, “So what do you think of AI?”. Abstract Intelligence, is a lighthearted yet thought provoking ebook exploring this question, focusing on art and artists, and how AI is already having an impact.
The design has a hint of vaporwave, featuring a bust of a Greek statue paired with 8-bit styled text. Adding to the retro-futuristic vibe, a trail of pixels follows the cursor’s movement. As one scrolls the statue dramatically breaks apart. It’s a powerful visual that’s a metaphor for the potential of AI to deface and alter what’s considered art.
Create ebooks with attention-grabbing covers with Vev
Just as there are many types of stories to tell, there are ways to present them. From traditional top-down user experiences to those that surprise readers with offbeat and novel ways of storytelling, Vev offers flexibility and plenty of creative possibilities.
Whether you’re a beginner or have years of experience, Vev demystifies web design through a powerful no-code visual editor, letting web designers of any level turn their creative ideas into actual web designs and share them with the world.
