Telling a story is an important component of any web design strategy, but is your site well set up for spinning a tale? A basic website layout with discreet pages may not offer you the best chance of developing a full narrative arc, but there are plenty of tools available to help. If you’re stumped about storytelling, test out these 4 strategies to find one that’s right for your site.

Try An Infographic

Infographics are increasingly popular when it comes to sharing statistics and demonstrating a multi-step process, but it’s also possible to share a story using infographics. People are wired to respond to stories as stories have cultural value, but it can be hard to translate that response to websites as they’re a relatively new part of our community. This is where infographics can help.

One advantage of infographics is that people have been making increasingly extensive ones, so readers are comfortable following their extended trajectory. In telling your story, use repeated images and recognizable structures such as speech bubbles to organize your narrative. It’s almost like creating a storybook on one long paper.

Flip On Through

Part of what we expect when we talk about stories is a certain amount of transition. This what makes children’s books and even magazines effective – you turn the pages and move through a larger story. Well, now you can do that on your website, too.

Flipbook animation is a style of web design where you can actually read a PDF page by page. Many people consider this an easier way to read PDFs as it comes naturally after a lifetime of traditional reading. At the same time, it offers the efficiency that comes with search capacity, a feature we expect from webpages.

Consider Parallax

Have you noticed the recent increase in websites that use transitional images that change your view as you move through the page? Many of these use the Parallax system to achieve this effect.

Take Growly Books, a site focused on selling its own storytelling. The Growly Books website takes a simple approach to the sometimes overwhelming Parallax system shifting your view from the top of a mountain down the scene to ground level. Parallax is meant to draw the viewer in and support your narrative through visual affect.

Show A Video

People are sometimes opposed to watching videos if they think they can get the same information elsewhere. This is why it makes sense to devote an entire section of your website to video. You might mark the video as “Our Story,” encouraging the browsing individual to meet you in this visual way. Tell them about the origins of your business, about the goals you’re trying to meet, or what a typical day at your business is like. People are natural storytellers, so go back to basics with video.

Selling Through Story

Narrative matters, but telling stories on the web has changed the traditional dynamics of this age-old practice. That doesn’t mean storytelling has suffered any, only that we need to rethink how it happens. Now is the time to investigate your storytelling options and choose the one best suited to who you are and what your business is all about.