Telling Stories Through Design: A Brief Introduction

It’s Not Your Design Output That Will Make Or Break The Product, It’s All That Other Stuff..it Doesn’t Matter How Talented The People Are, If The Process Sucks, The Product Is Sucks. Drawing In Front Of, Or With Others Motivates And Inspires • Sets The Stage For The Story, Puts Everyone On A Similar Track. • Starts A Dialogue, Breaks Down Barriers, Allows Others To Start Adding Gives Them Peace Of Mind Get Good At Starting Conversations. Put Yourself At The Centre Of The Narrative • Take Advantage Of Agile To Keep Conversations Flowing. Think Like A Film Crew; Edit Against The Plot. • Like A Serial Publication, Start With A Story Arc, Then Write As Many Stories As You Need

TELLING STORIES THROUGH DESIGN

11 June 2010 — Hannah Donovan

MY FRUSTRATION

Prologue

IT’S NOT YOUR DESIGN OUTPUT THAT WILL MAKE OR BREAK THE PRODUCT, IT’S ALL THAT OTHER STUFF

ALL THE INPUTS.

Prologue

IT DOESN’T MATTER HOW TALENTED THE PEOPLE ARE, IF THE PROCESS

SUCKS, THE PRODUCT IS SUCKS.

Prologue

SO WHAT DOES THIS HAVE TO DO WITH STORYTELLING?

YOU ARE THE STORYTELLER

Part 1

YOUR SUPERPOWER: YOU CAN DRAW

Part 1

Examples of sequential visuals: Comics & film storyboards

Art credit: Ron Smith

Credit: Lucas Arts

My (crappy) sketches for Last.fm’s Best of 2009 feature

The finished product

Some of our tools

1.

For Phase 2, we will round out the group to showcase the br

eadth of scrobblers and possibly include content like: deep links to build, tutorials, de

veloper links and generally more granularity.

JOIN THE GROUP FOR MORE UPDATES!

IN BE TA

DOES IT

SCROBBLE?

The answer is almost

always, YES!

Scrobbling tracks what you listen to

in a media player Learn more.

Looking for scrobbling tips? Trade

them in the forums.

Don’t see your favourite? Check out Build

for the more exotic scrobblers (more always being added)

Spotify HypeMachine MOG

page content

iTunes iPOd Windows Media Player Winamp

Amarok Android lala CoverSutra

More…

Featured content could be the latest ‘official’ partners or just new cool scrobbling clients Since this cont

ent changes regularly, it might make sense to do these using a ‘

gumball’ template.

More easily maintainable list for our veteran scr

obbling clients.

A hint that there is more on Build, but that it’s a work in progress.

Letting users know we will be adding more soon

House style “sketchy” visual

• Starts a dialogue, breaks down barriers, allows others

to start adding & gives them peace of mind

Part 2GOOD TEAMWORK

IS STORYTELLING

STORYTELLING COMES FROM AN ORAL TRADITION

Part 2

STORYTELLING IN AGILE

Part 2

MAKING CONVERSATIONS HAPPEN

Part 2

ARM YOURSELF WITH A DRAWING (OR THE ABILITY TO MAKE ONE)

AND A STORY.

Part 2

THINK LIKE A FILM CREW

Part 2

LET INFLUENCES IN YOU’RE THE EDITOR.

Part 2

Bits & bobs of the overarching story arc

Tactical UI implementation for a single story…

PART 2 - RECAP

• Get good at starting conversations Put yourself at the centre of the narrative

• Take advantage of Agile to keep conversations

flowing Think like a film crew; edit against the plot

• Like a serial publication, start with a story arc, then write as many stories as you need

STORYTELLING WITHIN AN

ORGANISATION

Part 3

STORIES ARE ALREADY NATURAL FOR

AN ORGANISATION.

Part 3

ORGANISATIONAL LORE

Part 3

Examples of lore collecting 2007 - 2010

Weaving user’s stories into the organisational lore…

A NARRATIVE APPROACH TO PRESENTATION

Part 3

STORIES: UP, DOWN

& AROUND…

Part 3

A project that sparked educational storytelling

PART 3 — SUMMARY

• Gather company lore & spread it

• Use a narrative approach to storytelling

• Give everyone (especially people up the chain) a story to tell

YOUR TOOLKIT

Part 4

Part 4

BE MULTI-DISCIPLINARY

“PUT A LOT OF GUNS IN A LOT OF DRAWERS”.

Part 4

WRITE BIG PARTS FOR YOUR USERS.

Guerilla user testing

WRITE IT DOWN AND PASS IT ON.

Part 4

DOING A 180

Part 4

DDM Template

Your NEW story here

PART 4 — RECAP

• Don’t just design, learn a bit of everything

• Explore a lot of routes

• Write big parts for your users

• Write down your stories so people can refer to them later

STORIES FOR THE END USER

Part 5

“STORY IS ABOUT RESPECT FOR THE AUDIENCE”

Part 5

“STORIES ARE ABOUT ARCHETYPES, NOT STEREOTYPES”

APPLY A CLASSIC NARRATIVE STRUCTURE TO SCENARIOS

Part 5

HURDLING THE CONCEPTUAL MODEL

Part 5

THE “HOW” NEEDS TO BE A STORY

Part 5

SHOW NOT TELL.

Part 5

PART 5 — RECAP

• Treat the audience with respect

• Don’t resort to clichés, create realistic scenarios

• Create ‘BME’ narratives around these scenarios

• Back *new* conceptual models with a story; attempt

to show it, not tell it!

“STORIES ARE WHAT DREAMS ARE MADE OF”*

* Warning: late-night whisky quotation

Epilogue

Thanks for Listening!