Digital stories

Purpose of digital stories

Digital stories are a long-form narrative medium. They are an immersive, visual format that is designed to engage the user and lead them through a set journey towards a defined conclusion.

This means they have a different purpose to standard task-based web pages.

Standard web pages vs digital stories

Standard web pages inform users about our programs, policies and services, to help them act quickly. It is generally ‘evergreen’. It has ongoing relevance for users, even if it requires updating from time to time.

Digital stories engage users through a deep dive on a particular topic that is rich in visual media. Stories are outcome-focused and can raise awareness, educate or motivate behaviour change.

A digital story format should not replace program or policy content, or be used for content that helps the user complete a task (e.g. find and access funding).

Digital stories sit in parallel to, and can promote or lead users to, standard task-based content.

Finding the right story

The digital story format allows us to take the reader on a journey through a particular topic. As it’s designed to combine text, data and strong visuals, we need to choose stories that work well in the format.

Key criteria for a digital story:

• Is about more than 1 person, or covers a longer period of time, or both.
• Has a narrative story arc — a beginning, middle and end and at least 1 reversal (e.g. something is bad, now it’s good).
• Has an outcome or something has been achieved.
• Lends itself to visuals that can create impact (e.g. videos, images, maps).
• Has good data to support it.

Consider the content life span when creating a digital story. Stories can be used for both important point-in-time pieces or longer-term content.

Want to learn more about story structure? See our advice on the building blocks of a story.

Planning your approach

When you start to plan your story, you’ll need to consider:

• Purpose — what do you want people to do or take away from the story
• Scope — thinking back to story arc, where does the story begin and end and who or what is included (generally, make it about more than one person or action)
• Media — types of images, graphics or videos that suit different points of information, and can provide moments to pause or punctuate points you’re trying to make

Keep in mind how your story points could be told with visual elements.

Ask the Web UX team for a story briefing template. You can use this to capture the ideas and key messages you want to convey in your story. The UX team will then use this to help you design an engaging story, using the available components of a digital story.

See more on digital story components.

Story content principles

Our digital stories have a particular style and structure. This helps create a consistent experience and a department identity for our storytelling.

Structure

A digital story is structured to engage users throughout the story. It is a longer content type, contained in a single page structure.

Digital stories are designed to maximise the screen real estate that is used for story content, with minimal visual distractions and links away from the story page. The goal is to retain the reader to the end. Avoid external links in the body of the story, as these invite the user to exit the story before it is finished.

We write digital stories to follow a narrative structure. This means introducing the topic/problem to hook the reader, then stepping them through a series of actions or events, towards a resolution. A narrative structure helps you to use moments of drama or uncertainty throughout to build momentum, retain reader interest, and drive home the end message or outcome.

There is no set length for a digital story. It will vary based on the topic and depth of information or data.

Style

In general, the writing style for digital stories is active voice, full sentences of varying lengths, with a conversational tone. This will all help retain reader attention.

Language can be creative but must still meet reading grade requirements (grade 5-9). This metric helps us ensure we’re using active and engaging sentence structure, which is crucial to good storytelling.

We generally avoid technical jargon and traditional web page styling such as bullet points in digital stories. Lists can interrupt the rhythm of the story.

Remember digital stories are presented by the department. Avoid sensational language and remain politically neutral when presenting information.

On page components of digital stories

Digital stories are built from a set of defined components. These can be put together on the page in a customised order, to engage an audience and best suit your narrative.

Each component can be used as many times as needed. Common digital story components include images, videos, scrolling text feature and infographics.

Header area

The header is a standard feature of all digital stories and isn’t editable. It includes the department logo, which links back to the News and media centre. The header also contains share icons, that users can select to easily share the story (via Facebook, X, LinkedIn, Email, Copy link).

Images and videos

Digital stories use more imagery than standard web pages. Images and videos must add to the story experience and should be unique to the digital story. Images and videos should sit before or after text that reinforces the same idea.

Images and videos can be fullwidth or embedded in content.

Full width images and videos can be used as an air gap between sections, or to create extra impact to support an idea or fact in the previous segment of content.

Images can also be embedded in content in 2 columns. This is useful for a before and after comparison. Videos can be embedded and played in a digital story. Consider use of videos carefully. If your video covers the same points as the digital story, it may not be needed.

Digital stories must meet accessibility requirements. Consider if any non-decorative images need alternative text. It is mandatory for all non-decorative videos to contain a transcript. The transcript will be displayed in an accordion (dropdown) under the video.

Scrolling text feature

The scrolling text feature adds depth and movement to digital stories. Background images or video appear fullwidth on the page, and the user scroll triggers text boxes to scroll over the image or video. Fullwidth background videos loop and play with no audio.

This feature meets accessibility requirements and is designed to scale to different screen sizes.

Infographics

Infographics can highlight statistics or key information. You can include up to 4 infographics in a row.

Limit the number of infographics you include in a story area (1-2 rows). This will improve the impact of the data you do include. Only present 1 fact or figure per infographic. Use metric units of measurement and keep measurements consistent. Choose the unit of measurement that is most logical for the context.

Timeline

Use a timeline when:

• a series of information needs to be ordered by time (ascending or descending)
• when you want to provide a simple visual overview of events or milestones.

A timeline can have any combination of date, title and summary text.

Timelines can be displayed either horizontal or vertical. Horizontal timelines should have no more than 5 milestones. Vertical timelines can have more, but keep it sensible for the reader.

Maps

Google maps can be embedded into digital stories. Alternatively, maps can be used as background images in the scrolling text feature.

Quotes

Digital stories can include a styled quote block. Use this component to help call attention to a short testimonial that supports your story beat. They can also be used as a visual air gap between segments of text.

Story credits and links

Any image or content credits, or links to more information, are included at the end of the digital story.

Advice on story structure

Do you want to learn more about story structure? These are the building blocks of a good story. You can also reach out to us for advice.

Theme

The theme is the main idea of the story. It is the message you want the user to remember when they finish the story. The theme should be your starting point. It is the reason to create the story.

The theme should be established in the title, tagline and introduction of your story. Each story segment will then help to explore or expand on this theme. The concluding paragraphs can call back to previous story points and reinforce the theme.

If you’re not sure whether to include certain details or ideas, consider whether they relate to your theme. If they don’t, they probably don’t belong in the story.

You can use the theme to centre the user in the story. This increases engagement and helps users to remember the theme. This can be achieved by providing actions for the user. For example, writing ‘we all have a responsibility to recycle.’

Setting

The setting is the time and place of the story. Digital stories could be addressing a current issue or inform of outcomes of completed programs. They may also look at historical improvements or be based on seasonal insights.

Characters

The characters are the people participating in a story. In some cases, this can extend to other living things.

The department and users can be characters in the story and are identified through personal pronouns (we, us, our, you, your).

Other characters could include research partners, grant recipients or even plants, animals or pests.

Story arcs

Story arcs give the story purpose, meaning, shape and movement. It is how we build dramatic tension, which keeps the reader engaged, and rewards their engagement with a resolution to that tension.

Story arcs contain negative and positive moments during the story’s plot. If there is no rise and fall in a narrative, it isn’t a story - it’s a series of events. Engagement is increased through shifts between the negative and positive points.

These are the 6 most common story arcs:

• Rags to riches (rise from a negative to positive)
• Riches to rags (fall from a positive point to a negative)
• Man in a hole (fall from a positive to a negative and then rise again)
• Icarus (rise from a negative to a positive and then fall again)
• Cinderella (rise from a negative to a positive, fall and then rise again)
• Oedipus (fall from a positive to a negative, rise and then fall again).

Digital stories are generally short stories. Short stories only use 1 arc and will have at least 1 reversal. Remember our digital stories are the voice of the department. We don’t need to sensationalise topics to create drama. Statistics and facts can create reversals and dramatic tension, while keeping a neutral tone.

Point of view

Generally, most digital stories will be in first or third person point of view. First person point of view can be used for stories from our perspective. These stories will include pronouns us, our and we. In third person point of view, we are the narrator telling a story about someone else. These stories include pronouns he, she and they. We generally avoid switching between point of views within the story, as it can be confusing for the reader.