Canvas & Scripts

The Canvas in Narrative Studio is a versatile workspace designed to map out complex user journeys, business processes, and system interactions. Most of the modeling will occur in Narrative Scripts. 

Overall Canvas Layout

The canvas spans a large, white grid-based background, resembling graph paper, to accommodate narratives of varying complexity. The entire workspace has a zoom and pan functionality, which allows users to explore different sections of the narrative as if navigating a digital whiteboard.

The canvas supports multiple narrative scripts and sub-scripts. In a typical setup, you might see capabilities connected to various narratives. In the narratives you will see constructs like moments, interfaces, and actions.

What is a Script? 

A story, or Narrative, packages information in an intuitive, easily understood context bound by one critical factor:

Time.

Narratives give us the ability to understand events in time. Software, at the end of the day, creates experiences that occur in time. In NDD, we start with the story, which we call a Script or Narrative Script, and build out from there - from the simple and general to the complex and specific.

You can think of a Script as a journey through your system. Obviously, there may be many paths through your system. The totality of the system may be represented as a collection of narrative scripts.

At the highest level, a Script is made up of Moments, which define the steps of a particular user journey in time. Moments move from left to right.

Let’s dive into the basics of Narrative Scripts.

Narrative Script Organization

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In a Narrative Script, you will see vertical columns, called Frames, and horizontal rows, called Lanes. The frames represent a slice of time. The lanes delineate what is happening in a slice of time - that is, business context/user intent, interactions, and system actions. 

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Adding a Script to the Canvas

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1. Grab a Narrative construct from the toolbar and place it on the canvas.

2. Name it with the desired outcome. This could be something like “browse product inventory”. 

3. Click the icon in the upper right corner to expand the script. To collapse, click the icon again.

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Understanding Narrative Script Lanes

The Narrative Script  is divided into three main lanes, stacked vertically:

1. Interaction Lane (Top Row):some text
   • Use Interface constructs here (white construct) to represent interface components, such as screens or UI panels.
   • Use Attachments to include Figma designs and other UX documentation with your Interface constructs.
2. Context Lane (Middle Row):some text
   • Use Moment constructs here to indicate the user’s goals or the business context at that particular step.
   • Use Actor attachments here to represent user personas, making it easy to identify who the actor is at each moment.
3. System Lane (Bottom Row):some text
   • Use Action constructs here to describe backend processes and system operations. Actions can be expanded into subscripts for more technical modeling.
   • Use Query or Schema attachments here to provide context about the data model.

Each lane is labeled according to its function, and these rows expand horizontally as more frames are added to the narrative.

Adding Frames to a Script

1. Hover over any vertical border in the script. 
2. When the green dotted line and + symbol appears, click it. 

Removing Frames From a Script

1. Hover over a frame.
2. When the trash can icon appears, click it.