2 Types of Digital Storytelling Websites: From Flexible Templates to Immersive Experiences

What is digital storytelling in web design?

Storytelling isn’t just a marketing buzzword, it’s how organizations engage and connect with their audiences in meaningful ways. Digital storytelling enhances user experience, strengthens brand identity, and uses animations to guide users. Whether it’s engaging web pages that are updated annually or a fully immersive, narrative-driven project, digital storytelling can scale according to your needs.

BLOG: 8 Digital Storytelling Website Examples

We break down digital storytelling into two different tiers of investment, flexibility, and narrative depth, making it easier to choose which option best suits your project.

1. Storytelling that supports changing content

This type of storytelling focuses on templated content that can contain animated elements while being able to edit and scale as your content changes. An engaging storytelling webpage can look like an annual impact report that includes animated charts, hover effects, parallax scrolling, and animated assets that guides users across the page.

These storytelling templates and components are reusable allowing them to be implemented on different pages while still remaining consistent.

This is ideal for:

• Annual reports
• Interactive landing pages for campaigns
• Company history or timeline pages

Benefits:

• A balanced investment of high visual impact and reusable interactions
• Supports content that changes over time
• Remains flexible for site-wide consistency

This storytelling type is perfect for organizations that want to modernize their digital presence while needing the flexibility to edit, add, and move their content around. This is a lower cost and quicker way to include storytelling without having to commit to a full-scale narrative project.

2. A full-scale immersive and narrative experience

This type of storytelling acts as a standalone project designed to deliver a compelling narrative across a single page or multiple pages. It is often structured as a journey including chapters that guide users through a story or invites them to explore a digital space.

This can be for a digital museum exhibition or a mini-site celebrating a centennial anniversary. This type of content is tightly scripted featuring cinematic animations where every page is designed to evoke emotion and leave a lasting impact.

This is ideal for:

• Celebration/milestone websites
• Digital exhibits or archives
• Historical/biographical projects

Benefits:

• Added creative freedom
• Fewer constraints from a broader design system
• Highly immersive and narrative-driven experience

These projects are built for a specific story and audience, meaning they don’t require a flexible design system or an involved content management system. Instead the focus is on the user experience and design, bringing your message to life in a unique and compelling way.

Choosing the Right Type for Your Story

Whether you’re launching a new product, sharing a milestone, or simply enhancing your website’s engagement, there’s a type of storytelling that can meet your needs.

• Type 1 –  is perfect for brands seeking to improve their digital presence while needing flexibility for evergreen content.
• Type 2 – is for those moments that deserve their own spotlight—a story told once, but leaves a lasting impact.

No matter the scale, digital storytelling is about connection. When done right, it not only informs, it captivates, inspires, and moves your audience to action.

BLOG: How to Create a Digital Storytelling Website

Need help bringing your story to life?

Let’s talk about how to elevate your brand’s narrative through digital storytelling—whether you’re starting with an individual page or launching an online exhibition.