Interactive Storytelling

For our last project of the class, we were tasked to come up with a social network for psychopaths. My group chose to pursue a VR social network controlled by a cult leader named Fogarty. We wanted to rethink conventional interactions in an immersive space and created a uptopian garden called Eden for Fogarty to lure his followers. Preying on the vulnerable, our main character uses his social network to create a godlike presence for himself and secure the trust and bank accounts of those who visit.

From visualizing stories, we moved on to visualizing information. Inspired by the writings of Edward Tufte, we looked at ways to express layers of information about ourselves, clearly, on a single page. After fumbling with data sets from my Amazon purchases and Linkedin connections, I chose to focus on a trip I had taken to Japan. Google maps gave me data about the types of transportation I took, how long I traveled, and where I traveled to. It also popped up pictures from each day to help visually represent where I was. While this visualization could be more interesting, I think it attempts to combine the information from that trip in a meaningful and actually helps me see it as a whole rather than in separate snippits in my memory.

This week we focused on writing a story based off our concept and feedback. Keeping a visual board of the characters and environment helped to make the story feel alive as we ideated on the details. As a team, we held brainstorm sessions where we each contributed our thoughts and written ideas until it formed a cohesive story. Probably our biggest focus was motivation. Why would our character be motivated to revolt against a cultural system? Incorporating backstory and consequenses helped us build character motivations that made sense and were rooted in her responses to plot events.

Reading Chapter 13, Combining the Ingredients of a Story from the book Storytelling for User Experience by Whitney Quesenbery and Kevin Brooks helped me to understand the basic elements of a story, their significance, and how each contributes to an effective narrative. The following quotes stood out to me.

The perspective (or perspectives) you choose limits what the people in the story see and experience.

The example in the book talked about a group of blind men describing an elephant while each is only exposed to a different part, such as the trunk, the leg, or the tusk. The lens through which you tell a story will define how the story is perceived. News media is often like this. A right-wing vs left-wing news publication will cover the same news event with opposing agendas. The perspective of the story has a great deal to do with how much information you give the audience as well. Do you provide backstory? Are you sympathetic to one character more than another? Perspective can allow us to root for the bad guy if we know enough about him to understand his motivations. If we aren’t given that information, we don’t care. For the purpose of telling User Experience stories, we should write from the perspective of the person experiencing the problem. We should empathize with their background and goals and help the reader visual themselves from their perspective.

Show don’t just tell. Find ways to communicate characteristics that describe actions (“show”) rather than just piling on a series of adjectives (“tell”).

This suggestion seems like one that separates good from great storytelling. The way we describe a character can impact how deeply the reader will connect with her. Writing that a character is budget conscious vs writing that the character spends two hours on Sundays clipping coupons to make sure her paycheck lasts until the end of the week will likely resonate more deeply with the audience. I appreciate that the advice is specific to action words. This makes the writing feel more alive. We are advised not to merely describe, but to use the characters actions to paint a better picture.

You can build context in just a few words, letting the audience fill in the details. All stories rely on our ability to fill in the blanks. As with character, the details you leave out are just as important as what you put in. While there are no hard and fast guidelines about what to leave out, consider leaving out noncritical details that might be fun for the audience to fill in for themselves.

I struggled a bit with this idea. The book offered many ways to add context to stories; physical, emotional, sensory, historical and memory. That said, what is the right amount of context? What do I want to allow the reader to make theirs and what context do I want to direct? If I follow the notion that the reader should see themselves in the story, then which details do I leave out? I think this idea will take time and practice to develop. Only through writing stories and receiving feedback from a diverse audience do I anticipate I will have a better grasp of this strategy.

Don’t let the stories become a procedural description of how to use a product.

This last quote seems simple, but can be overlooked, especially from a user experience design perspective. We are trained to be procedural when researching and prototyping. It is natural that this thought process would spill over into storytelling. We must remember that a story has a different rhythm and flow. A story is not a manual or a list of bullet points. We should strive to tell stories naturally through micro-moments. What is the character trying to do or learn? When they try to solve their problem, what happens? Let’s use these stories as opportunities to put our products and solutions into real world scenarios.

Which emotion do your favorite stories leave you with? Has it changed over time? How are those similar among the three and how are they different?

The three stories that came to mind are wildly different from each other regarding setting and characters. Yet all three; The Phantom Tollbooth, a children’s book, Ex Machina, a contemporary thriller, and season six of Alone, a survival reality series, all resonated with me in way that made me think about how I see myself in the world.

The Phantom Tollbooth is a children’s book about a bored young boy named Milo who travels through a mysterious tollbooth in his room and goes on adventure in the Lands Beyond. Reading it to my son as an adult was new experience because I was able to enjoy the wordplay that I had missed in my youth. Ex Machina explored the relationship between a man and a humanoid robot using visually stunning effects that allowed for a level of realism that wouldn’t have been possible in years prior. The Alone series placed 10 individuals in the arctic, isolated from each other, with only 10 items to survive for 100 days. The story narrows in on the final 3 contestants and their personal relationship with survival. In some ways, all three stories focus on human introspection. Miles’ journey awakens his senses and he reflects on his own attitude towards what is meaningful in his life. Caleb, the central character in Ex Machina questions his own humanity when faced with feelings towards a machine. Jordan, the last remaining contestant on Alone, succeeds because he is already at peace with himself and can focus on survival without the mental conflict of isolation.

Put a character from one of your favorite stories into the world of another. What would happen to them? What would they do? How would they interact with the characters of those stories?

We could suppose that Jordan from Alone, a tall, late thirties, outdoorsman, was sent to spend the weekend in the remote multi-million-dollar home with the tech CEO Nathan as a stipulation of winning the reality show Alone. Perhaps Nathan is also the executive producer of the show and wants to discuss future opportunities with Jordan. Also, in the house is the mute humanoid AI Kyoko, and Ava, a beautiful and advanced humanoid AI. Jordan and Nathan are opposites with Jordan being uninterested in technology and Nathan having his life defined by technology. The fact that Kyoko and Ava aren’t human wouldn’t be immediately revealed to Jordan as they get to know each other. Ava would be very curious with Jordan as she is programmed to learn to be human. Jordan would begin to feel uncomfortable with all the attention as he is not and extroverted person and enjoys time alone. Nathan would act as the observer pushing Ava and Jordan to spend time together to understand how his AI creation responds to humans.

Think of a few interesting and intriguing "what if" questions. Pick the favorite of your "what if" scenarios; tell us about the world it would be taking place in and the main characters. Give a character a goal and some obstacles.

Jordan is helicoptered to a remote area of Alaska to spend the weekend with Nathan. Shortly after arriving and meeting Nathan, Kyoko and Ava, a fire breaks out destroying the home and killing Nathan. Jordan, Kyoko, and Ava remain with Jordan still unaware that Kyoko and Ava are not human. Jordan surveys the burnt land realizing there is no way a helicopter can come to pick them up and they need to try and make it to the nearest town 20 miles away. The three of them start on their journey through the wilderness.

Along the way, Jordan is attacked by a wolf suffering serious bites to his leg. Ava kills the wolf with a rock and treats and bandages Jordan without hesitation. Jordan is surprised at her survival skill and questions her background. Ava explains that she learned these skills from the internet. On the second day of their journey, Jordan finds a fresh water source and encourages the women to drink, but they refuse. It is then that Ava reveals that she and Kyoko are robots. Jordan is confused and surprised, but curious at the same time. He questions why she saved him from the wolf to which Ava responds that she didn’t want him to die.

Jordan has many new emotions but realizes they must forge ahead if he is to survive and get back to his family. Later in the day, Ava takes a bad fall on some rocky terrain and her leg is irreparably damaged and crushed. She cannot walk. Kyoko proceeds to remove her leg to repair Ava. This is hard for Jordan to watch. He knows that they are not human, but he has still developed human emotions for the two. Now that Kyoko is too impaired to walk, Ava disassembles her for parts to take with her. Jordan is stunned. He doesn’t know if he should be amazed or afraid. While he had not connected as deeply with Kyoko as he had with Ava, watching her being taken apart piece by piece is unsettling.

As they continue their journey, Jordan asks Ava about Nathan. Jordan learns that this is all new technology and that Ava has never been out in the real world. The wheels in Jordan’s head start turning. Did Ava save him because she cared about him or because she needed him for her own survival. Jordan realizes the significance of a creation like Ava and her potential impact on the world. As the two see that they are approaching a nearby town from the height of a cliff, they stop to enjoy the view. Jordan knows that he is the only one who can prevent this technology from entering society. As Ava turns away from Jordan to face the view, Jordan pushes her. She grabs his arm and Jordan falls to the ground with Ava dangling off the edge of the cliff, grasping his hand so tightly that she breaks his fingers. Jordan grabs a knife from his side pocket and jams it into her wrist and she falls into the ravine. Jordan lays there with Ava’s hand still attached to his and looks at the wiring beneath the artificial skin. He puts it into his backpack, bandages his hand and continues his journey home.