6 Things To Consider About Storytelling In Web Design + 10 Great Examples

Storytelling has lots of potential when used in web design. People naturally gravitate toward stories, enjoying the immersive process of reading, watching, or listening to a narrative unfold. More importantly, storytelling in web design activates impactful processes in the brain.

According to research, stories are so powerful that they can trigger neural coupling — activating entire areas of the brain with words or images alone. They can release oxytocin — the bonding hormone — affecting people’s attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors. Finally, storytelling improves information processing and recall, providing context that makes it easier for people to understand complex concepts or see how they apply to their experience.

In other words, developing a website that tells a story could be the key to engaging your audience, boosting their product understanding, improving their user experience, or simply making them fall in love with your brand. It’s clear that storytelling plays a crucial role in lifting conversions and, ultimately, empowering your business to thrive.

So, if you’re thinking about enhancing your brand’s site with a narrative, here are the key things to consider about storytelling in web design, along with some great examples of how it can be done.

To Boost User Engagement, Employ the Right Storytelling Elements

One of the most significant benefits of implementing storytelling in web design is that it can hugely lift engagement rates. A compelling narrative can encourage visitors to spend more time on your site, encourage them to click through to potential conversion points, inspire social shares, and add a much-needed dose of relevance to your landing pages.

But the fact is, not all storytelling website elements were created equal. While copy does play a crucial role in capturing and retaining visitors’ attention, words are not the most effective way to engage your audience. Instead, do your best to choose visual components that will communicate said story in an easier-to-consume manner.

For example, one of the best ways to boost user engagement through storytelling is to employ visuals that resonate with your target audience. 

If you check out the Love the Night Sky homepage, you’ll see that the brand utilizes a stunning GIF in the hero section. The visual depiction of a person enjoying the sky view awakens a sense of FOMO in users wanting to explore astronomy as a hobby. But more importantly, it tells the story of where web visitors could be if they had the right equipment and guidance. This helps them visualize their goals and increases their chances of taking steps to make their dreams come true.

Video is another format that supports storytelling and yields high website engagement rates. According to research, using video increased website dwell time for 87% of marketers in 2022, showing how well consumers respond to videos with something to say.

To see this strategy in action, look at what SaaS brands are doing on their landing pages. For instance, Outreach utilizes an explainer video in the second screenful of the homepage to tell the story of how sales teams create and close pipelines. Because the 90-second video takes prospects through the process of making a sale (and all the challenges that can arise) in a story format, the brand manages to perfectly pinpoint its target audience’s frustrations, demonstrate that it understands user needs, and convince web visitors that it has a solution that works.

Let Your Site’s Design Tell Stories to Provide Context for Your Brand and Products

The most immersive stories are made great and relatable because they provide context. 

A book, movie, or video game can make viers/readers/players feel like they’ve been transformed into a new world, filled with adventure, that they get to explore. And the beauty of storytelling is that it can deliver the same effect in almost any other use-case scenario — from traditional ads to website design.

Thanks to its capacity to create a rich context for your product, storytelling can be an exceptional tool to show web visitors the full spectrum of benefits they can unlock by investing in your solutions.

For example, if you check out the Sokisahtel homepage, you’ll notice how huge of an impact context can make on consumers’ perception of a product’s value. Instead of just inviting web visitors to “Keep warm with Merino wool thermal wear,” this business uses a simple storytelling element to demonstrate a context in which keeping warm could help buyers feel more comfortable performing an activity like horse riding in the harsh winter.

Or, you could take things even further by addressing common pain points, like in some of Dollar Shave Club’s now legendary commercials. For instance, in its Quality Gets Borrowed YouTube video, the brand clearly depicts a scene that’s a cause of frustration for many men. So, while the story is utilized to show consumers that the brand understands what’s making them go crazy, it also sets up a stellar opportunity to present viewers with a solution, which is, in this case, a pack of stainless steel replacement blades for just $10.

Tell Stories to Build Strong Emotional Connections to Your Audience

Consumer behavior research shows that people tend to invest in products made by brands they feel emotionally connected to. 

According to Sprout Social, 57% of consumers spend more, and 76% choose brands over their competitors, all thanks to stronger emotional connections. Even more impressively, a survey that involved more than 19,000 customers discovered that emotional attachment is the number one driver of about 43% of business value (more than 2x than what brands can achieve by promoting product features).

So, knowing that building a brand whose customers are emotionally involved boosts business success and that stories can trigger a feeling of closeness, using storytelling elements in your web design should be a no-brainer.

One excellent way to do this is, of course, to tell the story of your brand. Sharing how and why you started your business can be a great way to maximize authenticity (which is why 51% of consumers support small businesses over large corporations). 

For instance, if you check out Digestive Warrior, a health brand in the digestive wellness space, you’ll notice a short storytelling element that describes the founder’s journey of being diagnosed with ulcerative colitis. The fact is, many of the brand’s target audience will be facing similar diagnoses, meaning that this single section of the homepage could be the key to them feeling a connection with this brand.

Alternatively, you could achieve a similar effect by shifting the focus from you to your existing customers. 

That’s what custom meal plans service Ultimate Meal Plans does on its homepage. Knowing that people looking to find a healthy meal plan usually have fitness and health goals they want to work towards, this brand included a Meal Plan Testimonials element on the website. This part tells how the brand’s service impacted the lives of two happy customers. Despite being a simple strategy, highlighting this type of testimonial is super effective. It builds credibility and, more importantly, uses emotions to inspire consumers to take action (that is, convert).

A Good Story Can Significantly Improve Brand Recall

Have you heard of the mere exposure effect? Essentially, it’s a phenomenon that proposes that consumers tend to develop a preference for products that they are most familiar with — especially during low-involvement shopping decisions. So, if you’re looking for strategies that can help you boost business growth, you must focus some of your attention on improving brand recall.

One of the great things about storytelling is that it can achieve this exact effect. Research has shown that long storytelling formats that exceed 60 seconds enhance brand retention, signaling that the path toward better brand recall could be hidden in web design elements that tell a memorable narrative.

A great example of a brand that utilizes storytelling web design components to achieve that result comes from Burt’s Bees, a company in the skin care niche. If you check out this company’s homepage, you’ll notice it contains a 40 Years Strong badge that invites potential customers to learn about the brand’s history. However, while the badge encourages people to learn about the story, it’s the company’s humble and relatable beginnings that make it so loved, relatable, and people’s top choice in natural skincare.

Page Structure and Layout Make Up Important Aspects of Your Narrative

Every story has a beginning, a middle, and an ending. And the thing about great web design — especially that which employs storytelling — is that it needs to follow a similar structure.

Ultimately, creating and showing off the perfect web design elements can positively impact your site’s engagement and conversion rates. However, if those elements aren’t put in the correct order, they won’t resonate with your audience or help you achieve your goals. With this in mind, one of the main strategies you need to employ when creating a site that tells a story is to utilize the correct page structure and layout.

For instance, eye-tracking research shows that users spend three-quarters of their web browsing time looking at the first screenfuls of a page. So, this is a clear signal that placing high-value elements — like value propositions — in the topmost section of your site ensures your audience notices and (hopefully) engages with them.

Similarly, high-impact elements (especially those that tell a story) must be highlighted by practicing visual hierarchy. By emphasizing these site components through size, color, contrast, and negative space, you can prevent them from being overshadowed by less engaging parts of your site and ensure they instantly grab web visitors’ attention (maximizing their impact).

An excellent example of a business that utilizes page layout and structure to guide user experience comes from gifting company Givingli. This brand uses the scrollytelling UI strategy (a narrative made from copy and visuals triggered by scrolling) to take web visitors from awareness to purchase. It’s an amazing tactic for maximizing engagement, product understanding, and purchase intent as it allows the brand to present each segment of its offer at the right time, ensuring the benefits resonate and that web visitors end up forming a positive impression of the company.

Of course, you can achieve equally impressive results without making extreme UI upgrades to your site’s existing design. Something as simple as having the content on your homepage reflect your target audience’s buyer’s journey can be a great way to encourage web visitors to start exploring a narrative that describes their path from problem to solution.

If you look at Lanteria, a Sharepoint HR Management service, you’ll see that it does a splendid job of utilizing layout and structure to take visitors on a journey. The header (which plays the role of a story title) hooks prospects by stating that companies can develop a culture of high performance. Then, Lanteria addresses its target audience’s main frustration — the inability to retain top talent. Finally, it presents its solution, along with the five pillars of HR success and descriptions of the benefits of using the Lanteria software.

Remember That Every Storytelling Experience Needs to Lead to User Action

Last but not least, as you consider adding a dose of storytelling to your website design, remember that the point of implementing this strategy is to inspire web visitors to take action (whether immediately or in the future). So, the most essential design components you must include on your site are calls to action that turn visual and textual stories into efficient parts of the sales funnel.

The good news is that adhering to CTA best practices will be more than enough to ensure the desired results. These include:

1. Using a design that is in high contrast with the rest of the page elements.
2. Ensuring visibility with proper sizing and placement.
3. Writing encouraging, action-oriented copy to inspire web visitors to act as soon as possible.
4. Supporting CTA copy with risk-minimizing microcopy (like stating how long a free trial lasts or pointing out that signing up for a service doesn’t require a credit card).
5. Ensuring high UX performance through mobile responsiveness and accessible design.
6. Regularly performing A/B tests to ensure the highest possible performance.

If you check out the Longines Spirit Flyback product page, you’ll see that the narrative web design ends with an invitation for web visitors to “Write [their] own story.” In addition to being a nod at Longines’ portrayal of its brands’ and products’ history, this element is also an amazing way to bring the brand’s many stories into the present by inspiring the next generation of aviation enthusiasts to set out on their own adventures.

Leveraging Storytelling in Web Design

Adding a dose of storytelling in web design is always a great idea. Especially if you do so with a clearly defined goal. Whether that’s going to be awakening an emotional connection with your brand audience, encouraging web visitors to act, boosting brand recall, or simply inspiring conversions is up to you. As you can see from the examples above, a website design that relies on storytelling can do all of these things effectively.

However, to ensure your hard work ends in positive results, make sure you base your decisions on data. That is, take a really deep dive into who your audience is and what they want so that your narratives end up being tales your prospects can relate to instead of just being some noise they’ll want to get around to get to the parts of your offer relevant to their experience.