Flickr's use of gaming storytelling structures

Like the blog GiantAnt, this writer has been trying to figure out why the photo sharing site Flickr is so interesting. GiantAnt figured it out: As gaming storytelling structures move increasingly into mainstream media and audience content creation and presentation, Flickr's user interface borrows the ways gaming lures the eyes and the clicks.

Read GiantAnt's entire posting here, but here's a quote from it:

"Flickr is an example of what I think of as “vertebrate” or “narrative” or “trunk-and-branch” UI...Flickr’s UI has a backbone. It presents a primary “plot” (upload photos and look at other people’s photos). This backbone gives users an immediate sense of the “story” of the site. But this central narrative exists in a space which allows for relatively freeform interaction, and the UI also helps nudge users off the main path with teasers...Like a video game, there’s a sense of progressive disclosure."

Speaking of narrative interfaces....



....photographer Robyn Cummins's site uses the clever metaphor of thumbing through photos in a shoebox via Flash.



Another great interface.



Huxley Iowa's Dan Noe puts a fresh twist on narrative interfaces that flip content into view.