Creating a captivating Story in ScreenSpace starts with understanding the type of Story you want to design. Consider your audience, what you want them to take away from the experience, and the overall goal of your Story. Whether you’re creating a product tour, immersive timeline, interactive case study, choose-your-own-adventure video, or something else, identifying the right persona and their needs is crucial.

Understanding Your Narrative

Before diving into creation, ask yourself:

Who is my audience?
What do I want them to learn or feel?
What action do I want them to take after experiencing the Story?

By answering these questions, you’ll have a clear direction for your Story, making the design process smoother and more focused. Our Guide to Narrative Design will help you answer these questions and translate them into a captivating narrative.

Getting Started

Once you know what type of Story you want to create, there are two ways to get started:

1. Using a Template

Custom designed by our story artists, templates are pre-designed for specific use-cases and can help you jumpstart the narrative and design process. They provide a structured framework, allowing you to focus on customizing content rather than starting from scratch.

To use a template:

Navigate to the Story Center
Select a template from the top of the screen
Preview the template and template overview
Click Use Template to duplicate the template to your workspace

Check out our Guide to Templates for an in-depth look.

2. Start from Scratch

If you prefer full creative control, you can start with a blank canvas. This option allows you to design every aspect of your Story from the ground up.

To create a Story from scratch:

Navigate to the Story Center
Click the Plus button

Accelerate Story Creation with Storyboarding

Whether you're using a template or starting from scratch, we recommend storyboarding beforehand. This helps you outline your Story’s flow and key points, making the actual creation process more efficient. Our guide to storyboarding can help you get started.

Designing in the Visual Designer

All Stories are crafted inside our Visual Designer, a web-based canvas that combines the ease of PowerPoint with the creativity of Canva. The Visual Designer offers a range of features to help you bring your Story to life.

Key Concepts to Understand

Familiarize yourself with these concepts to maximize your Story’s impact.

Stories: At its core, a Story is an immersive web experience – like a video – that uses custom video-game technology to display rich media and content inside an interactive 3D environment.
Scenes: Like slides in a presentation – a Story is made up of Scenes. Each Scene is a collection of interactive objects and media.
StoryPoints: Dynamic, expandable windows that display rich media and personalized content.
HotSpots: Interactive overlays that reveal feature details and functionality or can be used to navigate through a product.
Media Objects: Integrated videos, animations, or images.
Buttons: Clickable elements that guide navigation or trigger actions.
Text: Dynamic text options to convey personalized messages effectively.
Scene Types: Different scene types like Text, Product, Media, and Forms to suit various content needs.
Themes: Predefined and customizable design styles and layouts to maintain a consistent on-brand look.
Navigation: Options to help viewers move through your Story intuitively.
Actions: Events triggered by interactive objects to enhance the viewing experience.

By understanding these key concepts and planning your Story thoughtfully, you’ll be well on your way to creating engaging and effective Stories on ScreenSpace.

🤩 Need help designing your Story? Let us help!