Why you need interactive stories and how you can use them in an app
Have you ever come across an article, book, or social post so riveting that you had to keep reading (or scrolling) till you reached the end? More often than not, they contain good stories. These stories do a great job of capturing our attention and evoking our emotions.
Interactive stories take that experience further, allowing us to not only consume but also engage with the content presented to us. So, instead of waiting to find out what happens, we have the power to decide the story's outcome. Such stories can be valuable tools in education, health, and human research.
#1: Why our brains love a good story
We all have an innate desire to connect with and relate to one another. This is why stories about other living beings draw us in. Scientist and TED Speaker, Dr. Paul Zak, spent several years studying the impact of stories on human emotion and behavior.
In one particular experiment, Dr. Zak and his team showed participants a video of a two-and-a-half-year-old boy diagnosed with brain cancer and his father. After two rounds of chemotherapy and radiation, the boy feels great. It is as though life is back to normal. However, knowing that his son only has a few months left to live, the boy's father does not know how to be happy around him. When playing with his son, he feels as though he is slowly dying too.
Dr. Zak and his team also showed participants a control video of the same boy and his father, but this time they're at a zoo, and there is no mention of cancer or death. In fact, the story doesn't lead anywhere.
The experiment results showed that participants were more engaged while watching the first video. Additionally, blood samples taken from participants before and after watching the first video showed that they released two chemicals called cortisol — which draws our attention — and oxytocin — which creates feelings of trust and empathy.
Dr. Zak also found a positive correlation between the amount of oxytocin released and participants' willingness to help others, like donating to a charity linked to the story.
What we can take away from his experiments is that stories can evoke emotions, alter our brain chemistry, and drive behavior change.
#2 How to apply interactive stories in the real world
Unlike traditional stories which are purely for consumption, interactive stories encourage action and participation from the audience.
As our attention spans continue to dwindle, interactive stories certainly have the upper hand in conveying a message.
The points below illustrate how different fields can benefit from using interactive stories:
1) Education
Real-life scenarios depicted through interactive stories can pique learners' interests. It also encourages them to think and behave differently. When young learners create their own interactive stories, they have the opportunity to learn from each other’s lived experiences.
Interactive stories can also help children with autism spectrum disorder hone their social-emotional skills. For example, it can teach them how to make friends, show respect, control impulses, and resolve conflicts, to name a few.
Zombie Thoughts is an interactive, game-based app to assist children in developing resilience and reducing anxiety.
2) Healthcare
Patients, both young and old, may not understand everything a healthcare practitioner has advised or may be overwhelmed with information. Interactive stories can be a resource to teach them about nutrition, sleep, meditation, and exercise in a compelling and engaging manner.
My Daily Yoga is a health and fitness app that teaches yoga to different age groups.
For example, Menzies School of Health Research created a respiratory health app that uses interactive stories to improve health literacy. The app was created to teach Indigenous children and families about asthma. As a result of using the app, users’ asthma knowledge improved, specifically on treating asthma and first aid care.
Additionally, sharing personal stories with others gives an individual the chance to understand a situation through the lens of another. It can help emphasize the importance of adhering to treatment plans and lifestyle changes.
3) Human research
Data collection, assessment, and evaluation are essential to any research study. An effective method to engage research participants over a long period is through interactive stories. For example, you can use interactive stories to transform traditional survey-style questions into heartwarming stories that prompt participant input at different points. What’s more, you can use it for priming research — to brief your participants before completing a questionnaire.
Right care, first time, where you live, is a game-based research app to understand how young people navigate the mental healthcare system in Australia.
Additionally, a 2017 study revealed that interactive stories are a valuable research tool in mental health. Using such a tool, clinicians and patients can safely engage in reciprocal dialogue and discuss lived experiences.
#3 How to deliver interactive stories in an app
There are a few ways you can go about this. One, you can employ a custom development agency or freelance developer. However, they can be expensive, and if you are on a fixed budget, you would have to make important decisions about your app (features, design, etc.) upfront and make do with the outcome. Any revisions would require you to spend more money. You will also have to provide a lot of input on how you’d like to drive specific learning, health, or behavior change — human transformation — outcomes through the app, as they may not have the knowledge to do so independently.
Two, you can opt to build an app on your own using a generalist no-code platform. They offer more flexibility in building your app’s features, design, and so forth. However, there is a long learning curve and it doesn’t necessarily have pre-built functionality for creating interactive stories or the capability of driving specific human transformation outcomes. If you’re in the digital health or education space, you would have to be cautious as these platforms may not necessarily meet specific privacy and security requirements applicable to your app.
Alternatively, you could develop an interactive story app using a specialist no-code platform like Cogniss that is designed to develop apps for driving human transformation outcomes. Cogniss apps meet best practice privacy and safety requirements by default, which reduces the hassle for app creators.
Creating an interactive story using Cogniss Studio.
Powered by evidence-based science, Cogniss offers pre-built components that can be selected and configured to create highly customized apps. This includes a pre-built activity template that allows you to create interactive stories easily. Using a simple drag-and-drop story builder, you can create linear or simple branching storylines. The ability to add text, images, videos and audio files means you can create impactful, sensory-filled stories for any purpose.
Create your first interactive story app
We have built the Cogniss Academy to support new users like you. Our engaging content and guided activities will introduce you to the Cogniss platform and get you started with your app in no time. While you’re there, you can explore other lessons which cover various app features that would complement the interactive story feature.
Have an interactive story idea that you'd like to discuss? Speak to us.