JUNGLE: An Interactive Visual Platform for Collaborative Creation and Consumption of Nonlinear Transmedia Stories

Abstract

JUNGLE is an interactive, visual platform for the collaborative manipulation and consumption of nonlinear transmedia stories. Intuitive visual interfaces encourage JUNGLE users to explore vast libraries of story worlds, expand existing stories, or conceive of entirely original story worlds. JUNGLE stories utilize multiple media forms including videos, images, and text, and accommodate branching narrative outcomes. We extensively evaluate Jungle using a focused small-scale study and free-form large-scale study with careful protection of study participant privacy. In the small-scale study, users found JUNGLE's features to be versatile, engaging, and intuitive for discovering new content. In the large-scale study, 354 subjects tested JUNGLE in a realistic 45-day scenario. We find that users collaborated on story worlds incorporating various forms of media in multiple (on average two) possible story paths. In particular, we find through initial observations that JUNGLE can evoke creativity: traditionally passive consumers gradually transition into active content creators. Supplementary videos showcasing the JUNGLE system and hypothetical example stories authored using JUNGLE independently hosted here and here.