What is storytelling?
Storytelling in design is used to get he insight into users, to build empathy and to reach user emotionally. Personas can be created to represent target users and add conflict to stories that reflect their user journeys and problems. Designing up stories will allow designers to have a better understanding of what users want from a solution.
How to use storytelling in Design?
Storytelling in design, is used to captivate and gain interested from your target audience. In UX design the use of storytelling takes place through the design process to ensure that work is completed with the users needs and values in mind.
Once research is completed then within the process and the users needs and desires are understood, the insights are used to begin telling a story about who the users are, what they needs and how it will be provided.
For our first class back in the new semester with Kyle we had our class online where Kyle discussed with us the next project we would be taking on with him in this course. This weeks class focused on “Thinking like a Storyteller” where Kyle went through with us how we would interpret storytelling into the creation of a website in this coming project.
I enjoyed the discussion through the class and the examples that Kyle has shown us to give us the full understanding of how to produce a website in the form of a story. However, even with this class I still feel a little unsure about the construction, layout and content that I would need to head into completing a project like this but I hope over the coming weeks with lecture content and ideas I can come to the understanding as this is only my first week back.
Cindy Chastain Talk
Kyle has tasked us this week to watch a talk by Cindy Chastain that would help us think and understand further about the meaning being becoming storytellers for this module.
Chastain started her talk off with a series of Tweets that she had discovered that related to the relationship that designers have with storytelling. The Tweets that were documented showed that some were advocates for this method of design while others were sceptics. She went on to discuss how she felt that storytelling wasn’t valued in this li e of work like it should be and the Tweets showed this.
Cindy presented the ways that we as designers already tell stories in our practice at time with out our knowledge in terms of communions and framworking which are bother areas I hadn’t ever connected with storytelling. These included:
Communication – User stories, persons, scqienairs, storyboarding, comics
Framework – Brand stories, product stories.
Up to this point in the chat Cindy’s had solely discussed the relations that storytelling had to us as the designer and followed this then through with the users narrative. An interesting point that I took from this was the importance of how users process information through their narrative thought whilst using a product or service and what it means to them and how it works. This was a point I hadn’t thought of as storytelling prior as I only consider this as the use of telling a story from the designers point of view.
Cindy mentioned how good storytelling is used in design practice to engage with a user which I believe is a valid statement as overall it will help create an experience for the users that in beneficial when seeking to use a product or service.
Stories provide meaning, engaging our emotions and our minds
Mannerism in storytelling
Narrative/telling – Diegetic
First mannerism is the narritve or telling side of storytelling where you build scenarios to build user stories. This is a method that includes techniques like foreshadowing, tone and flashbacks that all help move the narrative process along with the aim of propelling the users through the story.
Dramatic Storytelling
An interesting part of this chat that I took from what Cindy was discussing was with dramatic storytelling and her belief that this mannerism of storytelling is the area were as IXD designers we can learn most from, finding examples from movies, plays and novels.
She went through to break down the elements of dramatic storytelling and going through the connection between how dramatic storytelling work and what interaction designers are trying to produce to their users.
The definition for Dramatic Storytelling that Cindy presented.
Whole action with multiple agents “who necessarily possess certain distinctive qualities both of character and plot.
This diagram that was shown in the talk demonstrates the journey or shape that takes place with the creation of storytelling. It showcases how as designers we can take this method of a start, middle to an end like a story when it comes to the creation and delivery of a service or product for our users.
The users of our products or services as interactive designers can be seen as characters in our story of design and can help us as they do in stories to unfold events and open up opportunities for us as designers to discover. Cindy broght into the discussion later on how viewers, readers or users of what we produce like they do with stories bring their prior knowledge of a product or service with them when introduced with something new. Whether this is with a book, movie or digital product the users will always bring their assumptions and expectations with them from their past experiences for example with the design of buttons or navigations in UX design.
To conclude I thought this talk allowed me think more closely into the relations that storytelling has in the processes that I will need to conduct when completing further projects. It was helpful as an introduction into this module and has gave me more confidence in how to include storytelling and begin creating a narrative mindset when designing.
Further related research:
This was video that I came across that quickly explains how as humans we have forever used storytelling as a form to solve problems and gain ideas. It demonstrated how over the last 100 years in the broadcasting era how we as audiences become the consumers of ideas and not solely invested in participating and creating ideas. This video was focused on how as designer we have the choice to seeks, skip and pass on ideas for solutions and problems and how moving into the digital era we are leaning towards the use of storytelling to gain interest with the use of values, emotions, needs and interests from our users.