At my latest place o’work I keep hearing this notion that we always “have to tell a story” with our web/interactive site designs. I personally don’t agree that all sites need to tell a story, because there isn’t always a story to tell and forcing a story will be very obvious to the user.
That being said, I ran into this “story” put together by Google. It tells the story of an email, and how that email gets to you after someone hits send.
The appropriately named “The Story of Send” is a great way to explain to people what happens when a user hits send in their email.
Not only is the story compelling and worth telling, the way the designers put the story together is unique, ellegant and well thought out.
THIS is an appropriate use of the “have to tell a story” montra and it works.