I read the article about narratives on the Alistapart website and I found it very relevant to my project.
http://alistapart.com/article/narrative
Here are the main points I got from it:
Stories are fun, web designers jobs are to make the narrative satisfying and create a positive narrative experience. The experience should be memorable- the customer should remember the experience and us.
This is true except for peripheral web services where a forgettable experience would be more appropriate, the sooner the late parcel is tracked and received the better.
A memorable service
- Create a story
- An user experience
- A dramatic arc
- Offer alternative options, additional options;
- additional information the audience might want to pursue;
- Find out what your user wants
Creating a narrative
- Its natural! The story is already there
- For a cause or crusade- the story is the struggle
- Coperate sites- the story of the company, not wishy-washy generic aims
- Business blogs- the evolution of products or trails of product development
