Telling stories on the go: Lessons from a mobile thematic storytelling system

Abstract

Although mobile devices make it easier for travellers to share stories both during and after their travels, these postings are often time-based, with minimal narrative structure. This paper describes an observational study of Travel Teller, a storytelling system designed to help tourists share their experiences as stories by providing thematic recommendations for mobile postings. Interestingly, although our design assumed people want to tell stories while travelling, our observations suggest otherwise. Rather than actively telling a story as they travel, participants stated a preference for remaining in the moment, and only later reflecting on and structuring their experience as a story. They viewed recommendations as approximate destinations, taking photos of things they stumbled upon rather than of the recommendation itself, and often put recommendations "on hold" to be resumed later. This suggests tools should support distinct story-gathering and story-telling activities, aim to inspire not prescribe, and flexibly track "pending" recommendations. © Springer International Publishing 2013.