How your players navigate through an experience

A Fastory experience is made up of a sequence of screens that your players move through one after another. Navigation is designed to feel intuitive, close to the stories your audiences already know from social media.

This article explains how your players move through an experience, on mobile and on desktop, and which visual cues guide them along the way.

Understanding navigation helps you design smooth experiences and anticipate how your players will behave.

You know where to place your key screens, how to pace your content, and why certain elements such as a game or a form put navigation on hold.

Mastering these mechanics also helps you better support your audiences and reduce drop-offs during the experience.

On a smartphone, the experience is displayed in full screen. Your players have several ways to move forward.

Only the areas at the far edges of the screen trigger navigation. The center remains available for interacting with your content, for example a button or a video.

Your players can also slide their finger horizontally:

A swipe must be firm enough to be registered. This prevents accidental screen changes when a player simply touches the screen.

On desktop, the experience is displayed in a phone-shaped frame at the center of the screen. Your players can navigate directly with the keyboard.

Keyboard navigation is paused during certain games that use the arrow keys themselves. This way, your players stay in control of the game without changing screens by mistake.

On the first visit, a short animation is displayed over the experience. It shows the keyboard arrows to indicate how to move forward and back.

This help disappears as soon as the player interacts, and is not shown again on subsequent visits.

Several visual cues guide your players throughout the experience.

On mobile, a progress bar appears at the top of the screen. It is divided into segments: one segment per screen of the experience.

The segment for the current screen is highlighted with your experience's color. Your players can see how far they have progressed and how many screens remain.

This bar hides automatically during a game to give the experience all the space it needs.

An animated arrow can appear to invite players to move to the next screen. It helps players who are not yet familiar with tapping or swiping.

It is not displayed on the very last screen, nor on intro or game screens, so as not to encourage a player to skip an important step.

When a screen contains more content than the visible height, a cue invites players to scroll down. Your players understand that there is still content to discover before moving on.

On desktop, the experience keeps its vertical format inside a frame at the center of the page. Around this frame, several elements let you customize the display.

The animated arrow and the progress bar reassure players discovering the format. They immediately understand that they need to move forward and can see how many screens remain.

Enable the sidebar with your logo and social links to turn a simple experience into a showcase for your brand. Add a custom background to extend your visual identity.

During a game, the progress bar and navigation gestures step aside so the player stays focused. This prevents them from leaving the game with an unintended gesture.

On mobile, the player taps the right side of the screen or swipes left. On desktop, they use the right arrow key. An animated arrow may also invite them to move forward.

On mobile, the player taps the left side of the screen or swipes right. On desktop, they press the left arrow key. Navigation remains available as long as the current screen does not block it.

The progress bar shows the total number of screens and the player's current position. Each screen corresponds to one segment, and the current segment is highlighted with your experience's color. It is displayed on mobile and hides during games.

Yes. On desktop, the right arrow key moves forward and the left arrow key goes back. Keyboard navigation is simply paused during games that use the arrow keys themselves.

Certain screens, such as a game in progress or a form to complete, put navigation on hold. This ensures the player finishes the step before continuing and prevents them from skipping an important moment of the experience.

On desktop, the experience appears in a vertical frame at the center of the page, surrounded by a customizable background. A sidebar can display your logo, your description, your social links, and your other experiences to create a true brand showcase.

A short animation shows the keyboard arrows to explain how to move forward and back. It disappears after the first interaction and does not reappear on subsequent visits.