narrativecentered

Narrative-centered, sometimes written as narrative-centered design or narrativecentered, is an approach in design, education, and analysis that places storytelling and narrative structure at the core of how information is presented, interactions unfold, and meaning is produced. It draws on narrative theory from literature and media studies and applies it to human–computer interaction, game design, and instructional design.

Core principles include treating the user as a participant in a story, ensuring causal coherence across content and tasks, and using narrative arcs to structure information and feedback. Narrative-centered design often employs scenario-based methods, storyboarding, and journey mapping that emphasize character goals, conflict, and resolution. It highlights meaning-making and memory, arguing that people more readily understand and recall information when it is embedded in a coherent narrative.

Methods commonly involve developing scenarios, designing dialogue and characters, and shaping task flows as story-driven sequences. Practitioners may use personas as story agents, build interactive fiction segments, or frame onboarding and training as unfolding narratives. Evaluation tends to consider engagement, comprehension, and the alignment between the story and intended outcomes.

Applications span interactive media, video games, virtual and augmented reality, educational software, museums, marketing experiences, and software onboarding. Benefits include increased engagement, improved retention, and clearer transfer of complex ideas through contextualized storytelling. Challenges include balancing narrative with usability and accessibility, avoiding overemphasis on story at the expense of function, and mitigating potential storytelling bias. Narrative-centered design often overlaps with user-centered or task-centered approaches and is best viewed as a flexible framework rather than a rigid methodology.