Hotspots, narration hotspots, and portals

Goal

Create hotspots that feel intentional and earned — each one either deepens understanding or moves the visitor somewhere worth going.

When to use it

• A scene looks great but visitors need a nudge toward what matters.
• You want to connect one scene meaningfully to another.
• You need narration, media, or a focused explanation tied to a specific visual detail.

Step-by-step walkthrough

1. Pick a concrete anchor for each hotspot: a visible object, a doorway, a sign, a character, a product, a clue.
2. Add an info hotspot when a short piece of explanatory text is enough.
3. Add a narration hotspot when the moment lands harder with a spoken beat.
4. Add a portal hotspot when the visitor should travel to another scene.
5. Write the hotspot title as a decision cue — 'See how the lock works' beats 'Lock.'
6. Use the body text to answer the real question: why does this detail matter?
7. Preview the hotspot in the public viewer and confirm it opens in a comfortable, readable position.

Best practices

• Aim for three to seven strong hotspots in a dense scene — curation beats coverage.
• Make every portal button label destination-specific, never generic.
• Treat AI hotspot suggestions as a first draft, then curate them down to the keepers.
• Hide or delete weak hotspots before you publish — quality is contagious.

Avoid these mistakes

• Dropping hotspots onto empty stretches of the image with nothing to point at.
• Labelling portals 'Continue' when the visitor has no idea what continuing means.
• Repeating the same information across multiple hotspots in one scene.

Go deeper

• Hotspots should reward curiosity, not interrupt it — they answer questions the visitor was already forming.
• A portal is navigation and storytelling at once; its label should answer 'why go there, and why now?'
• In museums and lessons, tie each hotspot to a specific learning outcome.