Storytelling in Many Shapes and Sizes: Ideas from the USAID Website

Did you know it takes eight seconds to scan a webpage? Before you have finished reading this sentence, someone will have scrolled through your page and decided whether to stay.

So how can we grab their attention? Through stories of course! It is no secret that people love stories more than jargon and dull statistics. Stories capture our imagination. They use emotion to get their messages across and create a more lasting impression.

The USAID websites draw heavily on storytelling. And its communicators clearly know that the challenge is not just what story to tell, but which formats work best for different purposes and platforms.