Interactive storytelling: interacting with people, environment, and technology

Abstract

Stories are an important part of children’s social and cognitive development and can be an integral part of their lives. In this paper, we share a short synopsis of Mobile Stories, one of the narrative systems we have developed with and for children. We also share lessons we have learned while designing, developing, and evaluating Mobile Stories. In designing and developing narrative systems for children, we advocate using iterative co-design (specifically cooperative inquiry). While designing a product, it is important to keep in mind key characteristics of interactive storytelling systems; such systems should encourage and enable creativity, interactivity with the environment via movement and mobility, and interactivity between users. When evaluating interactive storytelling systems, evaluators should consider the different story tasks of reading, creating, and sharing.