This handout accompanies slides -- Storytelling on small screens: making smart choices for mobile audiences -- taught by Fernando Hurtado at Fresno NewsTrain. It also accompanies slides -- The art and science of mobile storytelling -- taught by Meena Thiruvengadam at Illinois NewsTrain. Hurtado is the manager of digital video for NBCUniversal Media LLC.

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(Relatively) easy tools for mobile storytelling
Fernando Hurtado | @fhurtado | fernandohurtado81@gmail.com
Tools
● Timeline JS: good for building timelines with images
● Juxtapose JS: good for then-and-now stories
● Twine: lets you build quizzes in an easy-to-use flow chart environment
● Infogram: creates visually appealing graphs from spreadsheets
● Genius Web Annotator: great for providing context for speeches or new legislation
● StoryMap JS: combines map with images
● Canva: if you like designing, good alternative to Infogram
● ThingLink: great way to make images interactive, add links, images within images, etc.
● Soundcite JS: Similar to Genius Web Annotator, but it lets you add audio files to lines of text,
so long as the audio lives online somewhere (Vimeo, YouTube, Soundcloud, etc.)
Tutorials
● How to turn data into an interactive story with Twine by Storybench
● Introduction to Juxtapose JS by JMU Digital Communication Consulting
● ThingLink 360º How-to by Brandon Grell
● Timeline JS Tutorial by JMU Digital Communication Consulting
Questions to ask before you publish to improve user experience
● Can I include three forms of media in this story? (Text counts as one.)
● Do I have breathing breaks built into the story (i.e., white space, subheads, images, etc.)?
● Are all my visuals explicitly related to the story?
● Can I add an evergreen item I can recirculate?
● Do I provide opportunity for readers to change how their fingers are interacting with the
content?
● Am I explicitly inviting the user to stay on the site after they’re done with the story (not just
with related links)?
Recommended readings
● How to: Incorporating interactive media into digital journalism by Thinglink
● Quartz editor: Digital journalists must also become user-experience designers by
James Breiner
● A better user experience keeps readers coming back by Levi Gikandi
● How to Improve User Experience on Media Websites? by Virginie Nesa