91Èȱ¬

We made a personalised documentary about "the good, the bad and the ugly" of Instagram called Instagramification. The user gets a different experience, and a different presenter, depending on what they tell us their mood is (entertain/inform), what their interests are (sport, celebrity, tech) and one small piece of content is tailored to where they live.

We wanted to test whether non-coding producers could use StoryFormer to deliver interesting and coherent content 'invisibly' personalised for users. We discovered that there are always compromises to be made between immersion/flow and user agency when deconstructing stories for OBM.

Understanding how layered variables and conditions affected all content that followed provided us with some challenges. As did the practicalities of navigating around complex longform content with many sequences and variables and scripting for interactive content. Trying to offer users the chance to revisit decisions and watch what they'd missed proved difficult. However, the basics of using StoryFormer are very easy and intuitive - you can get started straight away and start experimenting with ideas.

In the future, as the 91Èȱ¬ learns about individuals through their interaction with us across all platforms, we will be able to curate the viewing experience around their preferences, needs and unique personality traits. Instagramification is a big step in this direction.

Most of us are now familiar with the concept of interactive storytelling where the viewer ‘chooses’ their own path, but we’re less familiar with a stories that intelligently adapt to you based on your data. When we interact online we’re constantly giving our data away. Big tech companies such as Google and Facebook monetise this data by allowing brands or even political campaigns to better target us. The 91Èȱ¬ would like to use the data we collect to better serve the public through content that educates, informs and entertains people in a way that is unique to them.

This doesn’t just mean which content and products are recommended to you based on your previous interactions, it could also mean tailoring how you experience the actual content. For example if you’re a tech savvy sports fan from Wales who wants to be informed about Instagram you will get a different version of the Instagramification than a celebrity-loving, non-sport fan from Scotland who prefers to be purely entertained.

To learn more and to experience Instagramification for yourself, you can click here.