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Transmedia narratives provide an opportunity to engage more senses than a story told using a single medium. When developing a transmedia project, these questions provide a starting point for addressing how the five human senses can be engaged. What are the visual characteristics of the setting? (Storyworld Level Design Tasks)Continue Reading

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Understanding what is the the information field for a transmedia story can make the message more effective. This questions should be answered when looking at the narrative’s information fields. What is the intended message(s) in the information field? (Scene/Sequence Level Design Tasks) What unintended message(s) are in the information field?Continue Reading

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Cognitive maps are the result of a type of mental processing in which a user acquires, codes, stores, recalls, and decodes information about things of interest in their environment. When used in the navigation of transmedia narratives, cognitive maps allow the “mind’s eye” to visualize the relative location of andContinue Reading

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The designer of a transmedia narrative needs to design with an awareness of the entire information field that the user will be in so the narrative can cut through the informational clutter. Every narrative unit and call-to-action must have a clearly identified message the design wants to communicate. That intendedContinue Reading

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When designing calls-to-action, designers need to consider the impact of these jumps on the user’s ability to both navigate the narrative and understand its meaning. Among the questions that the designer should address are how to manage the impact of jumps between art forms like (Dena, 2007): Representative arts andContinue Reading

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Most transmedia narratives engage vision and hearing but few engage all five senses because of the current technological limitations. As noted in the discussion of location-dependent narratives, all of the senses can be engaged by putting the user into a physical location. Other techniques have been used (e.g. sending outContinue Reading

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Engaging a user at an emotional level (affective participation) can be extremely effective in keeping that user involved with the transmedia narrative. Users who are emotionally invested in a story are likely to be loyal fans. The emotional hook for a user may come from within the story itself. AnContinue Reading

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The transmedia designer should be aiming for active participation across all elements of the transmedia narrative in order to sustain a high level of user engagement. Active participation increases the users’ incentive to migrate across the media and platforms and reduce the friction associated with that migration. The degree ofContinue Reading

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At the scene/sequence level media selection involves matching individual scenes and sequences to the most appropriate media. The detailed storyboard should indicate the medium used for each scene. Translating information across media can present transmedia designers with signification challenges. For example, visual language – the tight integration of images, shapes,Continue Reading

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The selection of a setting (or creation of one if it has not yet been created) can have a significant impact on the scene. When selecting a setting, the transmedia narrative’s author should consider the role that setting will play in the overall scene or sequence. Settings can play oneContinue Reading