ДАРОМ
Communication is not only 'sending information'; in communication theory communication is described as a process where people create and interpret messages, using verbal and nonverbal symbols, and where meaning is shaped by context and feedback. Because decoding is never identical to encoding, the same message can produce different interpretations — and that gap is where strategy and design begin.
Communication theory is a useful tool here: it helps describe what is happening, explain why it happens, and predict likely outcomes when we change the message, the channel, or the context.
In this project we treat design as a communicative system that encodes meaning through style, interface, and narrative structure.
To show how theory bridges to practice, this project uses a case study of a fictional demonic online store called 'Darom.' (which means 'for free' in Russian) that we created as part of the educational process. 'Darom.' sells devices and objects that are impossible in the real world 'for free', but the price is framed as damage levels—a controlled loss of part of the soul, with consequences revealed as a 'Verdict' during checkout.
The key question is not whether the store is 'good' or 'bad, ' but how its communication strategy makes the exchange feel believable and persuasive to specific audiences through symbols, context, and story logic.
We begin with a short case vignette and then move to the main brand presentation: what 'Darom.' communicates to a wide audience, for whom, and how each design decision supports the narrative of temptation, consent, and consequence.
Story
A user reaches 'Darom.' through a link that looks like a corrupted archive. The site, through its look, is already sending symbols that demand interpretation; meaning is created in the exchange between sender and receiver and is shaped by context, not just by information.
The catalog does not promise 'benefits' in normal retail language: it offers strange devices and objects with powers not available on Earth, presented as if they were evidence files from a darker reality. Each item has a 'damage level' price scale from 1 to 9, like a videogame system — an interface choice that turns morality into mechanics and makes the cost feel measurable. This is where 'Darom.' becomes persuasive not by argument, but by narrative logic: the store asks the user to accept a world where every gift is a trade, and where the trade always leaves a mark.
The moment the user places an item in the cart, the screen produces a 'Verdict'. For a low-level purchase, the Verdict describes a bounded run of misfortune — days of setbacks, small losses, minor injuries with limited recovery time, and a set of bodily or emotional disturbances like insomnia or persistent anxiety — presented as probabilistic 'possible consequences'. For a high-level purchase, the Verdict escalates into life-structure damage: betrayal by the closest friend, sudden financial collapse, or the loss of something earned slowly and painfully. The user is told the logic of the system upfront: the more 'expensive' the item, the larger the part of the soul surrendered, and the more dangerous the curse becomes.
At this point the case splits into two recurring user pathways, both useful for analysis.
In the first pathway, the conscious escapist reads the 'Verdict' carefully and does not argue with it; the user treats the curse as the whole point, a ritualized exchange that converts inner damage into an external, legible form. The decision is processed like a 'central-route' moment (high involvement, high cognitive effort): the user is not buying a gadget, but consenting to a story about consequence, and the story feels internally consistent — therefore believable. In the second pathway, the impulsive buyer experiences the 'Verdict' as an obstacle, not a contract — skims it, dismisses it, or treats it as aesthetic flavor; the decision is closer to peripheral processing, where cues (style, novelty, 'for free' framing) carry more weight than deliberation.
After checkout, 'Darom.' does not 'chase' the user with reassurance or customer-care warmth. The interface behaves like a file that should not have been opened: confirmations are brief, typography looks damaged, and the purchase receipt reads less like a receipt and more like a record that something has been taken. From a narrative-paradigm perspective, this matters because it reinforces coherence: the characters (the store, the user, the 'rules') behave reliably, and the world does not break its own tone.
The curse arrives in a way that is mundane enough to be terrifying: a sequence of 'small' events starts to cluster into patterns. The conscious escapist notices the pattern immediately and interprets it as proof the contract is real; the misfortune is experienced as chosen, and therefore endurable, because it confirms the narrative the user consented to.
The impulsive buyer notices it late: first as bad luck, then as a streak, and only then as consequence; what changes is the interpretation — meaning is decoded after the damage has already begun. In both cases, 'Darom.' achieves the same rhetorical outcome: the user ends with a story that 'makes sense' and that sense-making is what Narrative Paradigm calls narrative rationality. People evaluate the worth of a story through coherence and fidelity, not only through formal evidence.
'Darom.' Brand Presentation
For a Wide Audience
'Darom.' is a conceptual e-commerce experience—a fictional online store that sells impossible items at no monetary cost. Instead, payment is structured as a 'soul damage level' (rated 1–9), where each purchase comes with a specific, time-bounded curse or consequence revealed at checkout in a personalized 'Verdict.' The store itself is not meant to exist; it exists as a communication design case study that explores how narrative logic and story structure can make an impossible premise feel believable and compelling.
Target Audience
'Darom.' speaks to two audiences simultaneously:
Primary audience (end users / website visitors): People who are curious, unconventional, and willing to suspend disbelief. They recognize archetypal stories (Faustian bargains, wishes with hidden costs) and find value in exploring a narrative world rather than consuming a conventional product. These are users who respond to coherence and internal logic cover surface persuasion.
Secondary audience (brand / community): Once 'Darom.' becomes discussable and shareable, it attracts a community of people who identify with the values embedded in the store’s narrative: the understanding that meaningful things come at a cost, that temptation and consequence are intertwined, and that honesty about trade-offs is more compelling than hiding them.
Tasks
The project accomplishes three communicative tasks:
First, it tests narrative persuasion in digital space. Can a story structured within an interface convince users to 'purchase' something impossible without using deception, hard-sell tactics, or explicit logical arguments? How does the shopping experience itself become a narrative arc:
discovery → understanding → temptation → decision → binding consequence
Second, it demonstrates the power of narrative fidelity. 'Darom.' works because it taps into an archetypical story humans have known for centuries: the Faustian bargain. Users don’t need to be convinced through facts or credentials. They recognize the pattern. The store’s design simply confirms that they understand the story correctly.
Third, it makes visible the relationship between design and meaning. Every interface element has glitchy typography, the 'price' labels, the soul-damage digits, the 'Verdict' screen… It is a narrative architecture. Each element is a plot point that moves the user through a story.
Values
Honesty about cost. 'Darom.' rejects the fiction that you can get something extraordinary for nothing. Instead, it makes the cost explicit, transparent, and part of the story. Users know what they’re 'paying' and they can calculate whether they want to accept it.
Respect for audience intelligence. The store doesn’t explain itself. It doesn’t use pop-up disclaimers or FAQs that break the narrative. Instead, it trusts that users will recognize the Faustian bargain and navigate the experience with full understanding of what they’re entering.
Narrative rationality as legitimate persuasion. 'Darom.' challenges the assumption that 'real' persuasion requires logical argument or emotional manipulation. It shows that narrative coherence and fidelity (whether or not the premise is factually true) can be profoundly persuasive.
Design as language: every choice (color, typography, interaction flow, timing) communicates. There is no 'look' separated from 'meaning.' The aesthetic doesn’t distract from the message; it is the message.
'Darom.' Professional Presentation
For Designers and Communication Practitioners
Theoretical Foundation
This project is rooted in Walter Fisher’s Narrative Paradigm, which argues that people are storytelling animals and evaluate messages based on two standards: narrative coherence (internal consistency) and narrative fidelity (alignment with values and archetypal patterns). 'Darom.' demonstrates these principles in applied, interactive form.
Traditional persuasion models—the Elaboration Likelihood Model and the Theory of Planned Behavior— assume rational processing of information. But they struggle to explain why an impossible premise becomes believable. The Narrative Paradigm answers this: belief isn’t rational evaluation; it’s recognition. Users see themselves in the Faustian bargain story and trust the internal logic that confirms they understand it correctly.
The core technical challenge is making an impossible world feel internally consistent. With fixed dimensions, limited text space, and competing UI conventions, how do you maintain narrative coherence across every interaction?
Narrative Coherence
Strategy:
- Each screen reinforces the same rule system: temptation (item), explicit cost (soul damage 1 to 9), binding consequence ('Verdict' with duration of the curse)
- Visual language (color palette, typography, icons) is consistent and iconic—users can read the tone and intent from design alone
- Flow is ritualized: Discovery → Browse → Choose → Verdict → Commitment.
- Error states, edge cases, and secondary interactions: all support the primary narrative.
Narrative Fidelity
Strategy:
- Visual references to eerie and occult aesthetics signal 'this is a story about temptation, magic, and hidden costs'
- Product names and descriptions are sparse and mythic
- The 'Verdict' — the moment users see their specific curse—uses personalization to create emotional resonance. It’s not generic. 'It’s your consequence, your story.'
Interface as a Narrative Structure
Traditional UX thinking separates 'content' from 'interaction.' 'Darom.' refuses this division. The interface structure is the story.
Standard approach:
- Builds trust through reviews, testimonials, expert credentials (authority cues)
- Minimizes friction and cognitive load
- Separates content (product description) from interaction (purchase flow)
- Goal: Convert through clarity and confidence
'Darom.' approach:
- Builds belief through narrative coherence and recognition of archetype
- Introduces intentional friction (the soul-damage cost) as meaning-making, not friction to reduce
- Merges narrative content with interaction flow (the 'Verdict')
- Goal: Engagement through story, not conversion through clarity
Overview of possibilities & Our choice — why this strategy?
Looking back at the 'Darom.' project as a whole, it is important to clarify how this concept can be read through communication theory, because different frameworks illuminate different parts of the same persuasive effect.
1
In other words, 'Darom.' is not 'explained' by one theory only—several theories can describe its logic from different angles, and comparing them can help us show what the project is actually doing at the level of communication design. This note maps the main theoretical options and explains why the Narrative Paradigm became the most accurate explanatory frame for this project.
One possible reading comes from the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM), which describes persuasion as attitude change happening through two processing routes: a central route (high involvement, careful evaluation of arguments) and a peripheral route (low involvement, reliance on cues such as aesthetics, authority, or other shortcuts). If 'Darom.' is viewed through ELM, the analysis would focus on whether users 'compute' the offer via deep deliberation about the soul-damage mechanics (central route) or whether they are pulled forward by peripheral cues such as eerie style, mysterious tone, and signals that other people have already engaged with the store (social proof). The value of this approach is that it explains how attitudes can shift under different levels of motivation and ability to process information. Its limitation, however, is that it tends to treat persuasion as a sequence of individual message evaluations, and this can miss the fact that 'Darom.' is designed less like an argument and more like a continuous narrative world that must 'hold together' across the entire journey.
2
A second lens is the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), which shifts the focus from attitude change to the conditions that produce intention and, eventually, action. In TPB terms, the final 'purchase' decision would be predicted by:
- attitudes toward the behavior,
- subjective norms (perceived social pressure),
- perceived behavioral control (the sense that one can actually perform the behavior).
Applied to 'Darom.', TPB could help estimate who is more likely to proceed to checkout and why, especially if the project is framed as a choice under social influence and personal control. But the same limitation appears: TPB assumes that what matters most is rational evaluation of predictors. 'Darom.' depends on a different kind of acceptance though, where the impossible premise becomes 'believable enough' through the experience of the story. Users do not simply reason their way into accepting 'soul damage'; they move into it through recognition and narrative immersion.
3
A third approach is the Semiotic Tradition, which is especially strong for decoding how visual and verbal signs produce meaning. With semiotics, 'Darom.'’s unusual interface can be read as a sign system that communicates occult authority and ritual seriousness; the 'free' label becomes a symbolic trigger for a bargain narrative; and the 'Verdict' works like a sign of contract, inevitability, and closing time. Semiotics is powerful because it shows that design is not neutral; it is a language that audiences interpret through cultural codes. The limitation is that semiotics tends to remain structural: it can explain what elements mean, but it does not always explain why the overall experience becomes persuasive specifically through story logic. How do separate signs become a single, compelling 'this rings true' narrative?
4
A related but distinct lens, Social Identity Theory, would focus on belonging: whether 'Darom.' invites users into an in-group identity (brave, unconventional, willing to trade intangible costs) and whether that identity later supports sharing, community discussion, and repeated engagement. This is valuable for understanding how the project could spread socially, but it typically becomes most relevant after initial belief and curiosity are already established. So it explains later-stage community dynamics more than the first moment of acceptance.
This is why the Narrative Paradigm (Walter Fisher) ultimately became the strategic choice for explaining 'Darom.' as a complete system. The Narrative Paradigm begins from a different assumption than the previous models: that people often evaluate communication as stories, using narrative rationality rather than formal logic.
In this view, messages persuade when they satisfy narrative coherence (internal consistency—events and characters 'make sense' within the story world) and narrative fidelity (the story’s values align with what audiences already recognize as truthful, humane, and experience-consistent).
'Darom.' requires these standards, because the project asks audiences to accept an impossible premise, and the only way to make the impossible feel usable is to make the world internally reliable and value-recognizable. The 'Darom.' flow is built as a compact narrative arc: one user, one cart, one Verdict moment, so the experience reads as temptation → choice → consequence, not as a list of product features.
Narrative coherence is produced when every step reinforces the same rule structure (free offer, explicit soul-damage scale, personalized consequence, time-bounded commitment), so nothing feels random even if it is fantastical. Narrative fidelity is produced because the project connects to an archetypal cultural pattern — the Faustian bargain, that is, and related wish-with-a-cost tales—so users recognize the moral logic immediately: extraordinary gain requires proportional loss. This is also why the Narrative Paradigm succeeds where ELM and TPB can feel incomplete for 'Darom.': the question is: 'Do I recognize myself in this story of temptation, consent, and consequence? '
The Narrative Paradigm changes how the project’s design should be understood: not merely as persuasive cues, but as plot structure. In 'Darom.', the 'scary' UI establishes setting and tone; the 'free' price functions as the inciting contradiction; the soul-damage display becomes rising action (negotiating cost); the 'Verdict' screen is the climax (personalized consequence revealed); and the countdown timer turns the choice into binding commitment.
Because these elements are experienced as a continuous unfolding, users do not process them as separate tricks. They experience them as a story that moves from discovery through understanding to decision. In this sense, 'Darom.' is best explained as narrative persuasion in an interface form: people do not 'buy' because they have solved a rational equation, but because the story is coherent, culturally resonant, and consistently reinforced by the design and copy at each step. This is the core explanatory result of the project.
Course «Communication Theory: Bridging Academia and Practice»: lectures / Smart LMS. URL: https://edu.hse.ru/course/view.php?id=133853 [Electronic source]. — Electronic text data. — 2025. Accessed 14.12.2025.
Skrynnikova D., Dyadchenko M., Mamkina S. Educational project 'Darom.' [Electronic source]. — Available at: https://portfolio.hse.ru/Project/206625#
Skrynnikova D., Dyadchenko M., Mamkina S. Educational project 'Darom.' [Electronic source]. — Available at: https://portfolio.hse.ru/Project/206625#
