At Genially, Cristina Marcos presently oversees corporate communications, public relations, and events. With more than seven years of professional experience in marketing, communication, and innovation within the startup and technology ecosystems, Cristina Marcos has also expressed a passion for emerging trends, technology, and visual storytelling.
Artificial intelligence (AI) today allows us to generate text, images, videos, and audio purely from prompts, making the possibilities with the new-age technology feel endless. It especially promises (or threatens?) to change the creative industry forever.Â
While its contributions to the creative world are undoubtable, the technology still lacks what many consider a key ingredient: the human factor. AI can be useful in jumpstarting or speeding up the creative process, but it is not capable of creating authentic visual stories for target audiences, or at least not  as personalized as user-made content.
We spoke with Cristina Marcos, Head of Corporate Communications, PR, and Events at Genially, to discuss the impacts of AI in visual storytelling, the role of the audience and their experiences in the field, and how Genially can help creators feel as the protagonists of their work.
Spotlight: How has the integration of AI impacted the field of visual storytelling? Â
Cristina Marcos: Let's start by defining what visual storytelling is. It’s a technique that aims to captivate the audience through visual narratives, allowing us to create close connections with them. These emotional links are created by using visual resources that let us generate true communicative experiences.
In this sense, artificial intelligence helps visual storytellers combine images, graphics, videos, interactivities and animations to generate truly engaging content. AI helps a lot in all the formats when creating resources for visual storytelling. However, we need to keep in mind that narratives need to be at its center.
Wherever a user creates their own resources, Genially is the platform where all these resources and narratives become interactive and are brought to life to become an experience.
One of the keys to this technique is to know your audience and generate experiences as personalized as possible. In this sense, AI cannot replace the expertise of a person analyzing their target audience. We must also take into account that AI may even be subject to certain biases.Â
AI is a facilitator and time optimizer for content creators, but it should be seen as something complementary to the human factor which, for the moment, is still relevant as it is necessary to personalize the message so that it really reaches the heart of the audience.Â
In a nutshell, AI can create content, but with Genially we can transform it to the way our brain gets excited: stories + experiences.
What are some of the advantages user-made content has over AI-generated content when it comes to effective visual storytelling?Â
AI is going to create all kinds of content itself, but shaping it to fit each context and make the user experience something unique; that has to be managed by a human.
User-made content will usually have a higher degree of personalization. Playing with new narratives, which are not assumed or previously learned, is also something that human creativity will add to content in order for it to be successful. Therefore, user-created content will often be better than ones generated by AI as it will include innovation in the formats in which the content will be delivered.
Creativity is a subjective and human factor that, complemented with AI, can have great results. But in the end, when we talk about visual storytelling, the audience and its experience will always play a central role.
Genially places a strong emphasis on human creativity and storytelling. How does the company balance the integration of AI technologies while preserving the human touch and ensuring that the platform continues to empower users' creative expression?Â
AI allows us to generate an endless number of texts, images, videos, etc., which are very valuable resources for creating attractive content. But it will be the user's creativity that gives that perfect touch to generate a true and interactive visual communication experience.
Genially will provide users with all the necessary resources with AI to make their creations in the simplest and fastest way. But then, the tool itself is designed so that the creator is the protagonist. It is not a tool where you press a button and the job is done, we are going to facilitate everything so that it is done quickly, but the director of this movie is the user.
Let's imagine that a person wants to create a gamification to train or communicate with their audience. With Genially, users will be able to make this experience and present it in such a way that the audience will be interacting with the content, but also the presenter could interact with the audience, by adding interactive questions, windows, etc.
And that's more human, related to the creativity itself. Again, AI can be a support to create all those resources that we would need to create that gamification and turn it into an engaging and captivating experience.
Since its launch in 2015 as a free-to-use online tool, what were the significant milestones and challenges that shaped Genially into the successful platform it is today? Â
We created Genially because nothing like it existed. In 2015, we asked ourselves: if technology has changed the world, why are we still using the same tools to communicate?
And then, Genially was born. We created Genially in Spain with the goal of making communication interactive. Since then, we have achieved big things:
- 2015 - Founding and Beta launch | First 50,000 users | Team of 5 people
- 2016 - Closed our first investment round! | 300,000 users | Team of 10 people
- 2017 - 700,000 users |Â Team of 15 people
- 2018 - Over 1 million users | Team of 25 people
- 2019 - From Córdoba, Spain to New York: we arrived at the Big Apple | More than 2 million users | Team of 40 people
- 2020 - Huge growth, especially in education and remote work. All our numbers quadrupled | More than 9 million users | Team of 90 people
- 2021 - More than 14 million users | Team of +130 people
- 2022 - More than 22 million users | Team of +170 people
- 2023 - More than 30 million users and a more collaborative and interactive version launched
For those users without technical expertise, how does Genially make it easy to incorporate interactivity into their content? Â
We created Genially to make interactive visual communication a new standard of communication. And we wanted to make it accessible to everyone, regardless of their skills, and without the need to have any design or programming knowledge.
Genially works like any other office tool but allows you to get results like you would get from web content. Genially is a no-code tool, meaning the user can generate complex and visually attractive content without programming. They simply have to move the elements to the canvas using a drag and drop system, and by clicking on one or two buttons, we would already have applied interactivities and animations that allow us to turn the content into a wow experience.
Are there any considerations or best practices in terms of designing interactive content that caters to diverse audiences and devices?Â
Genially takes the following measures to ensure accessibility of Genially's view page:
- Integrate accessibility into our procurement practices
- Appoint an accessibility officer and/or representative
- Provide continual accessibility training for our staff
- Assign clear accessibility goals and responsibilities
- Employ formal accessibility quality assurance methods
But we also have a number of initiatives such as this article that allow our users to create content that is accessible. To generate accessible content, it’s important that the creator has an inclusive design approach. Genially makes it easy for you and gives you guidelines and tools to do so, but the human touch is always going to be necessary.
For example, we recommend:
- Add Alt text to images and resources - You can include alternative text in most of your genially’s resources. Do this for the elements that you believe provide valuable information. That way, people who use screen readers will be able to receive this information and have a more accurate context of the content
- Add descriptions to Link interactivity - Add a text with information about the external website that the link directs to. This information will be read by the screen readers
- Use the different text categories (title, subtitle, lists...) available in the left sidebar - The hierarchy of the texts is very helpful for understanding their structure. This hierarchy is displayed visually using letters of different sizes and styles (<h1>, <h2>, etc...). Those who use a screen reader receive this information through it. By using the appropriate text category in each text section, you make it easier for these people to understand your text, because the screen reader informs them what the text category is, in addition to reading its content
- Use zoomed buttons that do not require a screen reader, but help to visualize the content
There are other recommendations you can follow to make your Geniallys even more accessible:
- If your creation contains audios with relevant information, you can add transcripts using Window interactivity. This will make them accessible to the hearing impaired
- Avoid using color as the sole means of conveying information. Visually impaired people may miss some of the meaning of your message
- Apply sufficient contrast between text and background colors. The higher the contrast, the easier it will be for people to see the content
- Use fonts that are easy to read and of an appropriate size. For example, the Opendyslexic font makes your texts easier to read
- Avoid animations or page transitions if your audience has any photosensitivity issues
Let’s talk about interactivity. How does interactivity contribute to the effectiveness of visual communication and storytelling?
To talk about the benefits that interactivity brings to visual communication and storytelling, let's think about the definition of interactivity and, in particular, of interactive content. We are talking about resources such as presentations, infographics, games or images that require the active participation of the audience. In other words, a person who interacts with a piece of content is the opposite of a passive spectator, since they live an experience.
In addition to increasing participation, interactivity brings creativity and dynamism to visual communication. When visual content catches our attention, we feel the need to get involved by touching, discovering... Humans are explorers by nature. All starts with one click.
The more we invite the audience to discover the information, the more we increase their curiosity and message retention. And this is where the power of interactivity comes in as a powerful tool for visual communication. Let's think about the types of interactivity we have at Genially:
- Interactivity with the content - labels, windows, navigation by clicking buttons, links, zooming, audio, graphics, animations and effects, etc. This type of interactivity encourages exploration by the audience and, therefore, generates immersive experiences that entertain, engage and retain
- Interactivity with the audience - interactive questions in all its forms: quizzes, tests, surveys - make the audience participate and take action
What are the benefits of interactive storytelling compared to more traditional, static forms of content?Â
According to biology, we are visual and interactive beings by nature. We process visual content better, but we are also predisposed to interact with our environment, and we tend to explore whenever we can. Interactive visual content is content that appeals directly to our biology and makes the audience really live an experience that they will remember forever.
Moving from static to interactive content means generating immersive experiences that turn content consumption into an adventure. Interactivity helps us to layer the information and, therefore, increase the exploratory spirit of the audience. When we include game-like elements, such as challenges, rewards or contests that encourage participation, we make the audience live each experience as a mission.Â
This is what differentiates a static storytelling from an interactive one, the possibility of including the audience in the content itself, making them the protagonist of the adventure and of the content.
How does interactivity play a role in eLearning and educational settings? How does Genially's platform support interactive learning experiences and facilitate interactions between students, teachers, and learning materials?Â
Humans remember 10% of what we read, 20% of what we hear, 30% of what we see, 70% of what we say and 90% of what we do. If we want to be memorable, the audience has to take action.
Taking into account that the training process is a process that must activate memory, interactivity becomes the main ally of any professional involved in the field of training.
This interactivity allows the audience to take action and remember the content more effectively. Genially is an all-in-one authoring tool with which you can create any type of training content (courses, infographics, gamifications, quizzes, etc.) and consume them on any type of platform (an intranet or an LMS, either as an embed or 100% trackable thanks to the export in SCORM format).
But in addition, thanks to the analytics and tracking modules, or the SCORM download, we will be able to see the path of our students, and even ask them interactive questions so that we can evaluate their knowledge. Interactivity with the audience used in the right way can be a very powerful tool for monitoring and improving training materials. In this way, we will reinforce learning, which becomes a fun experience for those who receive the training.
Finally, can you share any long-term goals or visions that Genially has for the future? How does the company plan to expand its reach and impact in the growing creative landscape?Â
Genially was born with the purpose of making interactive visual communication a new standard of communication. For this reason, we are continuously improving our platform and developing new functionalities that allow us to better serve our community of users.
In this sense, Genially is working on adding more and more interactivity features with the content, but also with the audience, thanks to the development of interactive questions, interactive windows, etc. For Genially, there is no such thing as one-way communication, there are experiences that turn the audience into an active subject that interacts with the content by touching it, browsing it or even playing games or answering questions.
In addition, we are also developing new features aimed at maximizing collaboration between users and teams, so that Genially becomes a tool for productivity and collaboration in real time in both business and education.
Keep up with Genially on LinkedIn and read more interviews with industry experts here!Â