Humans are geared to hear and see stories. From the time we are children, we are fascinated by them. (Lately, when I’m putting my daughter to bed, she wants me to make up stories on the fly about say, a ballerina and a snake.) As we grow, these stories become more complex, longer and important to our lives.
As the internet has exploded and the number of sites have grown exponentially, the need to use your web site to tell a story has become much more important. Sure, you can get away with not doing it, but your site won’t be nearly as compelling.
Take for example a rather common event in just about everyone’s life: marriage. Seems like every engaged couple rushes to theknot.com or weddings.com to create a little wedding site. You pick a template, upload some photos, fill out some info and spread the word. It’s really convenient but there is not much life or story about the couple getting married involved.
Jessica Hische, who I want to be when I grow up, took a much different approach. Using parallax scrolling coupled with amazing typography and original artwork, the story of the two love birds unfolds before your eyes as you scroll down the page. It is beautiful. It is unexpected and it is very clear she understands how to tell a story. You reach the end feeling like you know these two and have shared in their courtship.
Another good example is Made in a Free World’s “Slavery Footprint” website. This interactive survey walks you through everyday questions: where you live, how many children you have, what you eat, etc. At the end, it tells you how many “slaves” you employ and where they are in the world. It’s a very eye-opening way to see how your consumption affects the world.
Let’s also examine an ecommerce website, like Tinké, by Zensorium. This tiny product gives you a quick way to check your fitness and stress. Being that this is a new product, with technology that might not be intuitive, it’s important to explain the product in an interesting way. The site offers a tour that gives you the opportunity to experience the product by changing its color, showing you how it fits in your hand, what metrics are taken and how it can plug into your iOS device to see reports. The tour is concluded with a nice large background image of the device in an everyday setting with a clear “Buy Now” call to action. One of the reasons I like this site is that its simplicity mimics that of the product itself.
Storytelling is a very powerful, and human medium. When utilized effectively, you can persuade users to interact with your site and brand in a way that is not only highly entertaining, but also very personal to them. What story is your web site telling?