The connector makes it possible for the user to take the action needed to fulfill the task decision. The design of the connector should focus on the cognitive affordances needed by the user to make the cognitive links between story elements (including developing the user’s cognitive map) and the physical affordances that allow the user to take the actions needed to move to the next element of the story.
The connector should provide enough information that the user has a general idea of what will happen next like knowing that clicking a button will take the user to the next unit of the story or into a game or cause “X” to happen. It isn’t necessary to reveal specifically what is going to happen and it is often provide some hints and then let the user’s curiosity prompt that action of using the connector.
What the motivator promises should be consistent with what the connector will take the use to. A discrepancy between the motivator, connector, and retainer risks leaving the user confused, frustrated, or cheated.
The connector may be the same object as the attractor (e.g. a big button that says “Click Me”) or it may be something different (e.g. the attractor shouts “Hey! Look over here!” while the connector is the “door” it is pointing the user towards). If the attractor and connector are different, the design of the call-to-action needs to ensure the user isn’t confused about which is which.
In addition to the cognitive affordances, the design of the connector must also keep the physical affordances in mind. For example, its size and location should make the connector easy to click, select, drag, or whatever the required user action is.
Designing the physical affordances of a transmedia narrative so they achieve the setting category in the psychomotor domain in Bloom’s taxonomy should be a designer’s minimum target. Ideally, designers to aim to have users achieve even higher levels (guided responding, mechanizing, and complex overt responding) of performance when using a transmedia narrative’s physical affordances.