While history can be entertaining and educational, no one has time to sit through a 19-hour documentary. Ken Burns is America's definitive documentarian. Best known as the director of the legendary PBS Civil War documentary series, his films (25 in all) are masterpieces of storytelling and a treasure trove of interviews from American History.
Rather than create a library of his films, Ken Burns had a notion that the stories contained in his films could be viewed from another perspective to generate new stories. So, he joined forces with Big Spaceship to bring his work to the digital realm. The Ken Burns iPad app is a meticulously curated investigation of the most important themes in American history: Art, Race, War, Innovation, Hard Times and Politics, and a visually stimulating tool to organize and present the documentarian's films in a compelling but digestible way.
Prior to the design of the app, Big Spaceship conducted product research to show that while there is no shortage of apps with dense educational and historical information, they felt out of place on the iPad-- they didn't take advantage of the possibilities of the medium. There were also magnificent apps which provided an experience that couldn't be replicated anywhere else, but none took an in-depth look at American history from a unique angle.
Our research showed potential for the product to deliver value to three distinct audiences. First, the app is ideal for Ken Burns superfans—those who enjoy the films and are looking for something to enhance the experience. Second, we spoke to teachers to learn how to make the app a perfect supplement for the classroom. Third were the technology early adopters—those excited by cutting-edge apps but might not be familiar with Ken Burns films. We mapped the needs of each of these users to determine the core feature set.
We defined what content would be included in the app—and what wouldn't. We knew the exclusive interviews with Ken were a unique selling point, so we made these easy to discover. Then, we limited the length of each playlist to roughly that of a television episode—long enough to deliver an immersive, lean-back experience but short enough to be consumed in one sitting.
In designing the UI, we minimized menus and provided multiple ways to navigate the content while keeping the interface ruthlessly simple. Our team explored dozens of options for representing how clips related to each other and after extensive user testing, we finally settled on a drag-up, drag-down gesture for demonstrating thematic relationships. The timeline is front and center, showing the broad scope of the app at a glance. Films are clearly labeled and collected along the bottom, while themes reside at the top. As such, the app provides multiple ways to navigate the content while remaining ruthlessly simple.
At launch, the app includes six playlists and about 3-and-a-half hours of video. It was an App Store Editor's Choice and quickly surpassed 150,000 downloads in the first month, ensuring Ken Burns' work will be appreciated by a new generation of fans.
