About the Study

Interactive stories are increasingly being used to explore sensitive social issues, encourage reflection, and help people consider alternative perspectives and outcomes. However, creating digital interactive stories often requires specialized authoring tools that can be technically complex, unfamiliar, or not designed with older adults in mind. This does not mean older adults are not capable of learning technology; rather, many existing tools for interactive storytelling assume prior technical experience and are not always accessible or age-friendly in design or learning curves.

To explore how older adults might learn and engage with interactive storytelling, we ran three in-person workshops from January to March at the University of Manitoba Fort Garry campus. Our participants were all aged 65+, and together they learned how to turn personal stories about ageism into digital interactive stories using Microsoft PowerPoint.

Every participant created a story based on an age-related experience that was personally meaningful to them. Many participants expressed that transforming these experiences into interactive stories encouraged them to reflect more deeply on those situations. Participants also learned new digital and creative skills throughout the workshops, and many shared that they would continue creating stories like these in their own personal lives.

We created this website to host and share the stories produced during the workshops. This site also includes resources for individuals, hobbyists, educators, and researchers interested in running similar workshops or learning how to create interactive stories using PowerPoint. Importantly, many participants expressed a strong desire to share their stories with others, to see stories created by fellow participants, and to contribute to broader conversations about aging and ageism.

Most of the stories on this website are only about four passages long, but each represents a unique lived experience. All of these stories were created by older adults aged 65+, including some participants who had very little experience with Microsoft PowerPoint before attending the workshops. Within a two-hour workshop session, participants were able to design and build their own interactive digital narratives.

Are you curious about interactive stories? Are you a researcher interested in storytelling and social change? Or maybe you simply enjoy creative uses of PowerPoint. Whatever brought you here, we invite you to explore the stories and resources on this website and share your thoughts with us. You can contact the research team using the email addresses listed at the bottom of this page.

Credits

Images used on this website and on many interactive stories found on this website were created with Generative AI (ChatGPT).

Contact the Research Team

Have a question about the study, the stories, or the workshop resources? Reach out to either researcher below.

Celine Latulipe

Celine is a professor of Computer Science.

Website