At historical and touristic sites, storytelling is a critical interpretive function. Yet conveying layered histories to diverse audiences presents ongoing challenges. Visitors arrive with different levels of knowledge, expectations, and time constraints. Traditional interpretive media; plaques, brochures, static signage, often fail to meet these needs. This is where digital storytelling offers an opportunity: not to replace what is already present, but to expand, personalize, and make it more responsive.
Digital storytelling currently refers to the use of multimedia tools: audio, video, animation, text, and interactive components—to narrate events, introduce characters, or evoke a historical atmosphere.
These tools can include:
Audio
Video
Animation
Text
Interactive Components (e.g. Augmented Reality, 3D Elements, Dynamic Maps)
When implemented effectively, it bridges gaps between past and present, human and place, information and emotion.
Cuseum's platform enables historical sites to quickly and easily build these layered experiences directly into their existing visitor touchpoints, using tools like mobile engagement, and content delivery portals to deepen interpretation without requiring complex infrastructure.
From Static to Dynamic: Reframing Historical Narratives
One of the core values of digital storytelling is its flexibility. Unlike permanent signage, digital stories can evolve over time or by visitor’s choice.
Your institution can:
Update content in real time
Introduce rotating narratives
Spotlight previously underrepresented voices
For example, a historic train station might launch a story sequence about immigrant workers during Labor Day weekend, then shift to stories about military transport during Veterans Day. All of this can be done using Cuseum’s content delivery and audience engagement tools, scheduled and published across SMS, digital passes, or member portals.
One noteworthy example: the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force has taken its mission to the digital skies with a growing suite of online exhibits and interactive experiences. From aerospace propulsion to cyber operations and guided munitions, the museum allows visitors to explore complex topics without setting foot on site.
These resources aren’t static PDFs either; they’re dynamic, multimedia-driven, and frequently updated. Add in virtual cockpit tours and podcasts, and you’ve got a digital strategy that reaches aviation enthusiasts, students, and curious minds far beyond Ohio. No crowds, no time slots, no “please don’t touch” signs—just rich, accessible storytelling at scale.
Layering Complexity Without Overwhelming
Visitors differ not only in age and background, but in motivation. Some want quick highlights. Others are looking for historical nuance.
A key strength of digital storytelling tools lies in its ability to tier content and let visitors choose their depth. Using branching narratives or “optional dig deeper” segments, a story about a building’s construction can remain brief for general audiences, while offering architecture buffs additional details through interactive pop-ups or embedded video commentary.
Design options may include:
Branching narratives
“Optional dig deeper” segments
Interactive pop-ups
Embedded video commentary
At the Edgar Allan Poe Museum, a creative digital storytelling approach helped drive a mobile experience where each room contains a short narrative,
Optional layers included:
Historic worker testimonies
Machinery schematics
Local economic impacts
Visitors can explore at their own pace. Those with a few minutes get a clear overview. Those spending an hour can construct a more complete picture of the site’s legacy.
Inclusive Storytelling for a Broader Public
Digital storytelling allows institutions to elevate voices historically left out of dominant narratives. Through the same mobile experience, a visitor to a colonial site might hear not only about the landowners, but also the enslaved people, women, and Indigenous communities connected to that place. Rather than reconfiguring signage, the site simply expands its digital layer.
For instance, a former historic site could use Cuseum’s platform to create parallel storylines—one representing the official record and another representing oral histories from descendants of the people who lived there.
Visitors could choose which perspective to follow or may switch between them. In this way, digital storytelling doesn’t just inform—it challenges and reframes.
Bridging On-Site and Remote Audiences
Another advantage of digital storytelling is its flexibility and extended reach. With Cuseum’s tools, institutions aren’t limited to onsite interactions—they can engage audiences nationwide through web-based experiences.
Take the White House Historical Association, for instance. Aside from the hundreds of thousands of people who physically visit the White House each year, educators across the country use WHHA’s mobile experience in classrooms to teach civics, history, and American heritage. The additional web-based format makes it easy to access and adapts to larger screen sizes, allowing schools from Maine to California to tap into curated educational content directly tied to classroom lessons.
This kind of approach builds long-term engagement while serving a wider, more diverse audience—including students, teachers, and lifelong learners.
Popular channels include:
Web-accessible narratives and exhibits
In-classroom learning tools
Thematic content via membership cards and email
Serialized campaigns via push notifications
These tools expand access and make cultural storytelling a shared experience beyond the museum walls.
Bringing History to Life: The Historic Charleston Foundation Example
A strong example of this in action is the Historic Charleston Foundation, which collaborated with Cuseum to launch a mobile app that brings Charleston’s storied past to life. The app offers self-guided audio tours of landmarks such as the Nathaniel Russell House and the Aiken-Rhett House, blending historical research with engaging narration accessible directly from visitors’ smartphones.
Through digital storytelling tools, these tours allow users to move at their own pace, explore hidden narratives, and experience Charleston’s layered history in a more immersive and personalized way. Rather than static signage, the Foundation’s mobile experience gives every visitor a chance to step into Charleston’s past—guided by voice, image, and context.
Operational Efficiencies and Strategic Advantages
Digital storytelling provides logistical advantages. It allows content updates without redesigning the entire visitor experience. It also enables more efficient training of staff and volunteers. It can even help surface analytics: which stories are completed, which segments resonate, where users drop off.
Analytics can reveal:
Which stories are completed
Which segments resonate
Where users drop off
Using intuitive backend tools, sites can evaluate content performance and adjust accordingly. If a certain narrative has low completion rates, institutions can investigate whether the problem lies in the medium, the tone, or the placement. If a story gets shared frequently, it may inform future exhibition decisions. This kind of data-driven storytelling ensures interpretation is not only meaningful but measurable.
Historical sites have a responsibility not just to preserve the past, but to interpret it in a way that’s accessible, engaging, and reflective of many perspectives. Digital storytelling enables these goals without demanding radical infrastructure changes. With tools like those offered by Cuseum, sites can meet their audiences on phones, through cards, across channels, and offer experiences that are layered, intentional, and lasting.
As expectations for visitor engagement continue to evolve, digital storytelling stands out as both a flexible tool and a moral opportunity. It gives institutions the ability to speak more clearly, listen more broadly, and tell stories that matter.