A narrative methodology for communicating complex, contested, or abstract ideas in ways that support understanding rather than overwhelm.
Living Stories prioritize comprehension over consumption. They treat understanding as something that must be designed.
Content is organized into discrete scenes rather than linear text blocks. Each scene has a specific cognitive purpose: orientation, disruption, evidence, synthesis, or reflection.
This prevents readers from losing the thread as complexity increases.
Information is revealed gradually. Data is introduced only after the reader has enough narrative context to interpret it.
Pauses are intentional. Silence, whitespace, and visual stillness are treated as part of the narrative.
Visuals are not decorative. They are used to show relationships, scale, accumulation, and exclusion—what systems do over time.
Diagrams, motion, and spatial metaphors replace dense explanatory text when they can carry meaning more clearly.
Readers are not passive recipients. Scrolling, hovering, or pausing controls the flow of information.
Interaction reinforces retention and agency, allowing readers to move at their own pace and revisit earlier concepts.
From "The Architecture of Other" — each scene has a cognitive purpose
Introduces meritocracy as common sense. Establishes emotional familiarity before critique.
Personal presence disrupts the myth. Focuses on system reaction rather than individual effort.
Systems reward what they are built to recognize. Visual metaphor: gates, forms, thresholds.
Policies, standards, and categories quietly determine who belongs. Structural diagrams over statistics.
Economic data appears after the reader understands the mechanism of exclusion.
Shifts from moral argument to economic reality. Inclusion as infrastructure, not charity.
Why the myth persists even in the face of evidence. Narrative protection of power.
Systems are constructed and therefore changeable. Ends with possibility, not prescription.
SVG-based diagrams illustrate gates, stacks, and thresholds—how systems accumulate advantage or exclusion over time.
Key economic data points appear briefly and then recede, reinforcing insight without overwhelming the reader.
This project tests how understanding forms when complexity is designed rather than compressed.
Does scene-based narrative improve reader comprehension of complex economic systems compared to linear essays?
Do visual metaphors (architecture, gates, accumulation) help readers retain and accurately recall data?
How does pacing affect a reader's willingness to engage with uncomfortable or counter-narrative evidence?
Can interaction increase agency without increasing cognitive load?
What elements are essential for accessibility across disability, neurodivergence, and language differences?
The data and research that inform Living Stories, organized by domain
Building narrative methodologies for public understanding
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