Storylines was built on the idea that a reader shouldn't have to choose, because the two aren't actually in tension — they just sit at different depths of the same structure.
The simplest way to describe it is as three motions, each doing a different job. Moving vertically — scrolling top to bottom — is the spine: the sequence the author intended, chapter by chapter.
Moving horizontally, within a chapter, is breadth: different facets of the same moment sitting side by side rather than stacked in order — a photo here, a data point there, a different voice just a click away.
Most tools pick one.
Clicking into a piece of content to go fullscreen is depth — a deliberate step away from navigation, where the reader stops moving through structure and just sits with one thing. What ties the three together is that none is a dead end.
However far a reader wanders, Map View is always one step back — less a menu than a floor plan, always available without interrupting the experience. Curiosity never costs orientation.
Think of it like walking through a well-designed exhibition. You move through the rooms in sequence (vertical). In a given room, you look left and right at what's around you (horizontal).
You lean in close to read the placard on one piece that caught your eye (fullscreen). And at any point you can glance at the floor plan by the entrance without that meaning you've left the exhibition.
model behind
storylines
