Design for Narrative Change. A Pedagogical Model for Interactive Digital Narratives

Abstract

Narratives mirror shared interpretations of the world. Still, dominant narratives prevail, pushing non-hegemonic narratives in the corner. A change in the creation, interaction and distribution of narratives can support the design of counter-narratives able to feed social change. Interactive Digital Narrative (IDN) can be considered an emerging experimental context in which designers, researchers and practitioners from various domains operate to develop story-based content addressing relevant social or societal issues. The IDN social constructivist role in encouraging or influencing individuals and collectivities towards social change is a relevant design issue especially from an educational perspective. Specifically, it features methodologies and praxis not yet systematised, in need of exploration and formalisation. Recognising the contribution of an approach combining transdisciplinary methods and tools, the article presents a pedagogical model for designing IDNs as complex interactive systems able to impact culture and society based on empirical study from a design course in the higher education context. Composed of theoretical and operational frameworks, the pedagogical model orients the multilayered design process for building engaging, interactive narrative artefacts systematising and operationalising knowledge from the domains of Communication for Social Change, storytelling and IDN in an iterative design process.