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Interactive news articles with Ink

· 2 min read
Max Clayton Clowes
Max Clayton Clowes
mcclowes
mcclowes/ink-news-demo
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I built this project as an experiment in making news more interactive. The idea was simple: what if readers could choose their own path through a story, diving deeper on topics they care about and skipping explanations they already understand?

I used Ink, a narrative scripting language originally designed for interactive fiction, to create a proof of concept that turns traditional news articles into branching narratives.

The problem with linear news​

Most news articles are linear. They present information in a fixed order, assuming all readers need the same context, background, and explanations. This creates a few problems:

  • One-size-fits-all approach: A reader who's already familiar with the topic has to skim past explanations they don't need
  • No autonomy: Readers can't explore tangents or related topics without leaving the article
  • Fixed depth: Writers have to guess how much detail their audience wants
  • Passive reading: Traditional articles don't adapt to different knowledge levels or interestsREST An architectural style for designing networked applications. REST uses HTTP methods (GET, POST, PUT, DELETE) to perform operations on resources identified by URLs.

The solution: branching narratives​

Ink lets you create interactive stories where readers make choices that affect what they read next. I saw this as a perfect fit for news, where different readers might want to:

  • Skip background explanations they already know
  • Dive deeper into specific aspects of a story
  • Explore related topics without leaving the main narrative
  • Choose how much detail they want about technical concepts

The demo I built shows how this could work with news content. It presents information in a conversational, branching format where readers can choose their own path through the story.

Try it out​

You can see the demo in action: ink-economist-demo.vercel.app

The project is open source, so you can check out the code, fork it, and experiment with your own interactive news formats.

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