slides

INTERACTIVE STORY TELLING

Content

Possibilities
Story Telling Cases
Define the users
Lead the user
Data collection
Available tools
Premice again

Interactive stories can be told in many forms using the same underlying data.

Possibilities

Computer stored presentations and multimedia gives us opportunities to

produce non-linear presentations with provision to easy jumps in storytime line, provide easy access to explanations and deeper insights, immediate and easy feed-back from user,
easy access to alternative stories to investigate a subject and stored material/data.
possibilities to easily create alternative scenes (rooms, maps, etc.) and themes (discover, learn, get informed, etc.) using the same base material/data.

We thus move from a linear to a dialectical form of story telling (Dialectical = 'discussion and reasoning by dialogue as a method of intellectual investigation' Merriam Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, 10th edition). The timing requirements such as those we have in a linear video presentation diminish. The viewer/user may repeat or stop the story, and go back and refresh an earlier part of the 'story'.

There are of course also a risk that the user will read the story in a fashion we did not expect, leaving important parts out. This can be avoided with different control mechanims (you can only continue after having 'read' this, mark what you have read and come back later).

Design your presentation starting with conceptual sketches. Involve the client early in the specifications and design work.

Story Telling Cases

Interactive or linear story telling can be used in many contexts.. For example

External company presentation Owners, culture, long-term strategies, strong sides, products, service and support, growth, plans, R&D, reference cases, customer feed-back, qualities/prices, ....
Internal company presentation (prepare for change, stimulate feed-back,...)
News
Missioning
Product presentation and use
Building community and shared values
Consumer to business relations
Business to business relations

A story consists of three parts

Beginning
Middle (a journey from one 'place' to another)
End

Define the users

Define the users of the presentation with regard to

Competence in the knowledge domains under consideration
Experiences of non-linear presentations
Interest in the knowledge domain
Degree of active control in the interactive presentation
Expected learning outcome

Lead the user

The interactive stories may be more or less self explaining dependent on the type of story we are telling

Communication support within the company,
Enforcing shared values within company,
Company product presentation,
etc.

There are different ways to lead the user through the presentation

tree structure more or less explicitly shown (graphic tree, menus, position feed-back by clicking in scenes,...)
different scenarios to navigate in (predefined routes, alternative choices and actions on the way)
interactive simulation of a real course of events (installation, trading, using a tool,....)

Data collection

The material/data we can use in our presentations may be

videos and video clips
images and interactive images
sound (music, talking, environmental sounds)
interactive 3D models
clickable image maps
text
interactive graphics
etc.

What sources of data do you have access to

images
videos
text documents
graphics
drawings
3D models
existing presentations
etc.

Plan the data collection with regard to possible usage in different 'stories'. Decide on suitable forms of data representations (images, video, text, sound, graphics, models, ....)

Structure and store the data so it can be easily used in different multimedia presentations.

Available tools

Decide on which ICT tools you plan to use and have access to

authoring tools
graphic editing
video editing
3D model presentations
data collection tools
etc.

Premise again

From the video story telling lecture we allude:
It may be helpful to condense the aim with the interactive story to one sentence ('premice'). Use this during the whole production and throw away parts that does not contribute to confirm the sentence.