Strategic storytelling that moves the audience towards sustainable change

Anchoring the experience on the theme of “wonder”, we chose stories from the ocean’s past, beauty and state of vulnerability – stories designed to make the audience go “wow”.

These stories highlight and explain many of the ocean’s wonders that were once unimaginable to the layperson. They transport the audience to a place of wonderment, evoking responses ranging from awe and admiration to joy and even a sense of urgency.

Beyond wonder, the experience was also framed with the themes of time and depth. These themes create meaning, which helps the audience understand and remember the information better. They also contextualise the assorted stories and marine animals into patterns, which allow the audience to experience logical narrative arcs through history and space.

With the time pattern, the audience recognises a story from the past to the present. With the depth pattern, they see the shallow coast transitioning to the deep sea and then to the dark unknown.

These ways of organising the stories help the audience experience the oceanarium with a clearer mental model of the ocean. They are less likely to be overwhelmed by the vast experience and more likely to learn more about the ocean and marine life.

Resonating with the stories, the audience becomes more inclined to appreciate and even cherish the ocean. They may find themselves caring more deeply about the ocean and be willing to contribute to marine conservation and sustainability.

Hard knowledge and concrete data are necessary for educating the audience about the ocean, but communicating them without interpretation or context is not effective or memorable for a lay audience.

We applied several storytelling strategies to translate theoretical concepts, hard facts and concrete data into easy-to-understand, engaging content for the audience:

• We recognised the importance of providing content that is both engaging and accurate. So, while we aimed to evoke a sense of wonder through the experience, we also ensured scientific accuracy.
• Given that the oceanarium’s target audiences vary – locals, tourists, children, family groups, marine enthusiasts and more – we had to ensure the interpretive panels met everyone’s needs. We broke concepts down into more digestible formats using graphics, diagrams and simpler vocabulary.
• For the panel design, we paid careful attention to the volume of information presented, font sizes used and balance between content and visuals. User testing was done to ensure that the final panels would not overwhelm the audience with too much content or result in a less-than-optimal reading experience.
• We used stories to simplify and illuminate facts and figures. Stories are more likely to resonate emotionally with the audience and motivate change, while the facts and figures within them prove the points.

Stories aside, we also kept in mind that the stars of the show should always be the marine animals. Our story-first experience was thus designed to always complement the animals.

From our visitor studies at the former S.E.A Aquarium, we found that many visitors were cruising through the exhibits, browsing but not actually observing or understanding. Often, they simply noticed the animals’ colours and sizes.

Hence, we aim to purposefully guide the audience towards knowledge that drives curiosity and wonder, and helps make their visits memorable and meaningful, by pointing out in the panel texts what to look for in the marine animals and the live habitats.

Families form one of the oceanarium’s main target audience groups. During our visitor studies, we noticed that parents or grandparents did not always know how to hold a conversation with the children about what they had observed. Therefore, we also provided prompts and discussion points for family groups in our panel texts, so that adults can help create teachable and inspiring experiences for children.