Storytelling is all about engagement. Designing with a narrative in mind can make a difference between a product that merely functions will and one that engages the minds and emotions of users. This session explores how an understanding of narrative techniques can make us better designers.
Cindy Chastain-Rapp is a multi-disciplinary designer and creator currently serving as SVP for Mastercard’s Global Customer Experience and Design team. Chastain-Rapp’s expertise spans across interaction design, UX design, product design and branding. In the above video, Chastain discusses the importance of storytelling and narrative in engaging interactive design.
(above) Cindy Chastain: Thinking Like a Storyteller seminar
(above) Cindy Chastain: Thinking Like a Storyteller seminar
Chastain-Rapp notes that product design and storytelling have in common is a desire to engage (cognitively and emotionally) with their users or audience. With this in mind, she proposes to her audience two questions: How can we as designers provide cues that will deepen a narrative connection and what can we learn from the discipline of storytelling that will help us design for meaningful and engaging product experiences?
Slow Disclosure: slow building of tension forces the audience to make active hypotheses based on what is presented to them, which will ultimately prove to be right or wrong. This leads Chastain to her own hypotheses, proposed to the audience:
Stories engage us because of the way they’re designed. If we, as designers, had a better understanding of how stories are crafted, we would have a better understanding of how to craft deeper kinds of engagement in the interactive products we create.
Act I: Theory or the Construction and Destruction of Narrative
According to Aristotle: All stories are in their general conception modes of imitation. There are two types of storytelling. There is the narrative, the telling or the diegetic i.e., building scenarios; user stories; how and why we use products. The other form of storytelling is the dramatic, the showing or mimetic. In theatre or film, this would refer to actors taking the form of their characters and playing out a scene. Chastain believes that it mimetic storytelling provides interaction designers with the most to learn from.
(above) Screenshot displaying a common narrative structure and timeline which most media follows
(above) Screenshot showing a narrative when Aristotles six elements are introduced
Dramatics is not episodic but is based on principles of probability and cause and effect related to action. Aristotle describes dramatic storytelling as whole actions with agents who necessarily possess certain distinctive qualities both of character and plot. To achieve a successful story which is simplified in the above image, Chastain points out that it takes a huge level of craft to push the noted narrative stages. Aristotle provides six qualitive elements of drama required for this success: plot (events), character (agents), thought (ideas and theme), diction (language), song (pattern) and spectacle (the visual).
(above) Chart displays a series of consequential events created by the users actions in e.g., task flow mentioned below
(above) Screenshot emphasising the potential events and scenarios caused by a users previous actions
How does this relate to interactive products? The big difference is that the user is also the agent or character rather than a spectator. The user or agent can initiate or perform actions in a unfolding series of events. A user is an agent in a collaborative story environment which Chastain likens to utilising a task flow in which the user’s own actions push the timeline along; enacting a series of events which unfold into the next scenario.
The above image displays what Chastain summarises as the shape of narrative flow. She notes that this chart (seen above in both it simplest branches and more dramatic possibility) follows a similar, non-linear shape.
(above) Screenshot from Bandersnatch, highlighting buttons the audience can select to control the character’s fate
I was really interested in this idea as it I found it was even more relevant to another recent form of storytelling in media utilised by within episode of the TV show Black Mirror entitled Bandersnatch. Black Mirror releases stand alone episodes which generally act as commentary on the darker, dystopian-esque elements of our society. In Bandersnatch, the audience is able to control the actions of the main character (similar to a video game).
Act II: Craft or What We Can Learn from Storytelling About the Art of Narrative Flow
Chastain continues to explore Aristotles six qualitative elements, beginning with plot. Plot drives narrative comprehension and engagement. There are four relevant mechanics of dramatic narration: communicate potential (communicate possibilities and the world); express causality (why do things happen); reinforce probability (making assumption on what’s happened before - mental models!); and facilitate completion (user satisfaction).
(above) Amazon immediately suggests possible routes to goods of interest on the customers homepage based on the user’s shopping and search history
(caption) Similarly (though not as obviously) Spotify also suggests tailored features that encourage the user to take action like Discover Weekly: a playlist of new songs the user might like according to the systems algorithms
We communicate potential early on in the narrative - providing enough information to interest or draw the audience into the new world being introduced. Online shopping companies like Amazon utilise their home page to draw a customers attention by empathising with the individual through several different methods, including offering tailored recommendations. These elements motivate a customer to make the first action, engaging with the site as we explore what goods it is promoting.