Without narrative, your product is simply a complex network of buttons and fields. The first step is to turn your thing into a compelling story that will move your audience and inspire action.
This guide will help you understand the key elements of narrative design and how to effectively create compelling Stories for your audience on ScreenSpace.
What is Narrative Design?
Narrative design is the art of crafting engaging and cohesive stories that resonate with your audience. It involves structuring content in a way that guides the viewer through a journey, ensuring they gain value and insight at every step.
Narratives help in building an emotional connection, making the content more relatable and impactful. In a world inundated with information, well-crafted narratives stand out, ensuring your message is not only heard but also remembered.
Key Elements of Narrative Design
Understanding the key elements of narrative design is essential for crafting captivating Stories on ScreenSpace. Mastering these elements will help you create cohesive and compelling narratives that resonate with your audience and deliver memorable experiences.
Audience Understanding
Understanding your audience is the foundation of effective narrative design. By knowing who they are, what they care about, and what challenges they face, you can tailor your Story to resonate deeply with them.
This connection is crucial for creating an engaging and impactful experience that keeps your audience invested from start to finish.
Identify Your Audience: Know who your audience is and what their needs, preferences, and pain points are.
Create Personas: Develop detailed personas to represent different segments of your audience. This helps in tailoring the narrative to each specific group – and identifying where to provide a tailored choose-your-own-adventure experience.
Empathize with Their Challenges: Understand the problems and challenges your audience faces. What keeps them up at night? What obstacles are they trying to overcome? By empathizing with their pain points, you can create a narrative that speaks directly to their experiences.
Align with Their Vision and Values: Identify what your audience values and what their long-term goals are. Aligning your Story with their vision and values helps build a deeper connection and shows that your brand shares their passion and purpose.
Gather Continuous Feedback: Regularly seek feedback from your audience to refine your understanding. Use this feedback to adjust your narrative and ensure it remains relevant and engaging.
Story Arc
A well-crafted Story Arc is essential for engaging your audience and guiding them through a compelling narrative.
By following these phases, you can create a cohesive and impactful Story that resonates with your audience, whether you use the full arc for a comprehensive approach or focus on a specific phase to meet your needs.
🧐 Your ScreenSpace Story may include the full narrative arc for full-funnel implementation – or focus on one phase based on your use case. Consider the context and intention of your Story to determine what to incorporate.
Hook – Setting the Scene
Like the opening scene of a movie – start with a compelling hook that grabs your audience's attention and sets the context and tone of your Story.
People buy from brands that share their vision and passion. By making this clear and aligning on vision first, it tells your audience this journey will be worth their time.
🎯 Goal: Motivate your audience to lean in.
🚀 Implementation:
State your why, vision, or value prop in one compelling sentence or graphic.
Sharing with a prospect? Personalize the opening scene with a sharp trigger phrase that aligns your vision with your buyer's internal business objectives.
Use variables to dynamically personalize your headline in your buyer's own words.
Customer Examples: TrustRadius • Talespin
Conflict – The Challenge
What’s standing in the way of your audience from achieving their goal? What's changing in their world? Who's impacted? What's the cost in time and money? How is this problem getting worse – and why should they care?
Make this pain tangible and real. Inspire your audience to feel that emotion.
🎯 Goal:
Build authority and earn trust by describing their problem better than they can.
Create an authentic connection by empathizing with their pain.
Inspire urgency by visualizing the impact of inaction.
Create contrast to amplify the perceived value of your solution in the next stage.
🚀 Implementation:
Start with a bold statement that pokes your audience's pain and inspires urgency.
Expand this with additional data and customer stories that prove significant cost.
Ideally you can visualize the before state through a graphic or animation.
Call out the weaknesses of other solutions your audience may have considered.
Tip: Allow your audience to skip this phase in case they're already educated on the problem and want to jump to the solution.
Customer Examples: AMNI • Fluint • TrustRadius
Approach – The Vision
While using neutral framing – suggest your approach to solving your audience's big picture problem. The 'Imagine if...' statement that helps your audience visualize the promised land.
By aligning on the core solution before showing your product, you'll teach your audience something new — while framing your product as the obvious solution.
🎯 Goal:
Keep the audience engaged by staying focused on them – not your product.
Maintain trust by presenting the core solution before pitching your product.
Frame your product as the obvious solution to their underlying problem.
🚀 Implementation:
This can be as simple as your headline or an 'Imagine if..." statement.
Ideally you can visualize the after state through a graphic or animation.
Tip: Allow your audience to skip this scene in case they're already educated on the solution and want to see how you deliver the solution.
Customer Examples: Mozart Data • Fluint • AMNI
Solution – The Promise
You gained your audience's trust and they're ready to hear what you have to offer – earning you the right to shift the narrative from your audience to your product.
Introduce a hero – a fictional character or real customer – that your audience relates to and can follow along their journey.
Show your audience how they will win with your solution – the capabilities that will ultimately lead them to a better world. Make it sound 'too good to be true.' A little disbelief will encourage further engagement.
🎯 Goal:
Naturally guide the story into your product, preventing that 'salesy' feeling when you dive deeper
Build anticipation by visualizing the outcome your solution delivers.
Inspire motivation by making your solution sound 'too good to be true.' You'll prove it in the next stage.
🚀 Implementation:
Start by using your existing value props and benefits from your website or boilerplate messaging along with any accompanying graphics or animations.
Place these value points in front of a dashboard or home screen to seamlessly transition into your product. But don't reference features... yet.
Or take this further by visualizing your value props or use-cases inside an animation like this – telling your Story while providing a vivid picture of the journey.
If your Story is targeting multiple personas or use-cases, this is where you might split the Story into multiple journeys.
Customer Examples: Mozart Data • Salesbricks • Ignition
Proof – The Journey
Show you deliver the value you say you do through tangible proof. Depending on your audience, this can be in the form of a product tour, case study, roadmap.
Let your audience experience that journey to success.
Continuously connect each step back to the value prop your audience engaged with – while highlighting key differentiators that help your solution stand out from the competition.
Demonstrate real-world examples or case studies that showcase the effectiveness of your solution.
🎯 Goal:
Build credibility by providing tangible evidence.
Inspire FOMO by illustrating how your product solves the audience’s problem.
Reinforce trust through transparency and real-world application.
🚀 Implementation:
Depending on the persona, this may be a 4-10 step walkthrough to an aha moment, a relatable customer success story, or visualizing the cost & time investment.
For a product tour, keep the flow simple and related to the value they selected. Continuously connect the dots back to why each step matters.
For other scenarios, it might be a case-study or ROI calculator. In this case, simply embed existing links, graphics, videos, or documents right inside your Story.
Include gamification or re-purpose your content with interactivity and fluid animations like this to drive deeper engagement.
Include customer stories or testimonials to drive it home.
Customer Examples: ServiceBell • IMPLAN • Sequel
Success – The Aha Moment
Guide your audience to the moment of realization — the point where they truly grasp the value and impact of your solution.
Use compelling visuals, success stories, or testimonials to illustrate the transformation your product can bring. Help them emotionally connect with the benefits and envision their improved future with your solution.
This emotional connection solidifies their belief in your product and motivates them to take the next step.
🎯 Goal:
Create an emotional connection by helping your audience visualize the success and benefits your product brings.
Solidify their belief in your product through impactful stories and testimonials.
Motivate them to take action by highlighting the transformative potential of your solution.
🚀 Implementation:
Validating that emotional moment can be quite simple. Use an animated GIF, confetti, or a title with an exclamation point. Bring it full circle by tying it back to the value prop that launched this journey.
Add a video testimonial or case study from a customer who experience value from that very journey.
Customer Examples: Salesbricks • TrustRadius • AMNI
CTA – The Next Step
End with a clear and compelling call to action that guides your audience on what to do next.
Embrace their evaluation process and help them get to the next stage as seamlessly as possible – whether it’s learning more, scheduling a demo, or sharing the Story with their team, make the next steps obvious and easy to follow.
If your solution wasn't the right fit, your audience will at least walk away having learned something new – likely to return when they are ready. Don't force them down a path they aren't yet ready for.
🎯 Goal:
Encourage immediate action from your audience.
Provide a clear path to engage with your product or team.
Reinforce the value and urgency to act now.
Nurture unqualified buyers to establish long term relationships.
🚀 Implementation:
Empower your audience with everything they need to almost guarantee success.
Perhaps it's a lead capture form that leads to a scheduling page. A share link to get buy-in from other stakeholders. Or simply point them back to explore more.
Customer Examples: IMPLAN • Salesbricks
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Narrative design is a powerful tool for creating engaging and impactful Stories.
By understanding your audience and crafting a well-structured narrative, you can deliver valuable and memorable experiences. Use this guide as a reference to enhance your narrative design skills and make the most out of your ScreenSpace journey.
Happy Storytelling! 💜
😳 Feel a little intimidated? Start with one of our proven templates with customizable narratives designed specifically for your use-case.
Or schedule a narrative design workshop with our story artists.