Storyboarding earlier on is the design process is a good way to ensure the user needs are being considered. A storyboard is a story - make sure to include a beginning, middle, and end. What is the problem they are trying to solve and how do they get there? Who are they and what are some of their pain points? Include emotions in the process. For example, Tracy in the classroom, morning time, with a few students in the space. Setting the scene and the environment the character is in.Important aspects of storyboarding include: Does the entire team have the user’s goal in mind? Storyboarding brings about clarity when a team is in the process of working in shorter sprints or being built by various individuals at once in a collaborative setting. This is done by walking through the storyboard and reviewing it in a team setting. In UX design, storyboards help to filter out the questions we are not asking, and to think about what might be missing from our flow. A storyboard in UX will help create insight into the user’s experience and should be made with a goal in mind for the team. They can be erased, drawn over, made in pencil and modified, as they are not finite in form. Storyboards in UX design are engaging even with minimal sketches, and they are flexible. Instead, it helps to focus on what the priorities are for users. “Can they accomplish this task? What is that experience like for them?” A storyboard is a way to communicate and does not have to focus on illustration as a skill set. It may show Tracy at the beginning of their day, frustrated, looking to find a particular article for their students. We may sketch out their experience in the context of the classroom. For example, if one of our personas is Tracy - a teacher who needs to find a new article for their students - a storyboard helps to build out what that experience is like for them. The impact of showing a user persona as they walk through the experience is a way to understand and have more context. The frames are all equal in size walking you through the scene in a consistent manner and they present the problem the character is trying to solve - getting to the Heart of Te Fiti. The loose style of sketching with some color exemplifies how one can illustrate a scenario with a scene. In these sketches we see the beginning of the scene, the challenge the character faces, and how they are trying to get through it. This section of the storyboard illustrates an action sequence from the film in which the Kakamora are trying to steal the Heart of Te Fiti from Moana and Maui. Applied to UX, storyboarding allows us to walk through the user journey, similar to experience mapping where we uncover insights about the different scenarios in which users may find themselves interacting with our product/design.īelow is an example storyboard from Disney’s Moana. It’s a concept credited to Walt Disney studios in the 1930s which they used to visualize the sequence of a plot. They are meant to tell a story and illustrate the process and experience of an event. What is a storyboard?Ī storyboard is a way of graphically organizing a story that shows a sequence of events presented visually. Read on to learn more about storyboards, why they’re important, and when to use them. Through various types of user research, a UX design team will partner with visual designers, content creators, engineers, and stakeholders to ensure that the common goal is understood. Through these storyboards teams learn more about personas, problems they are trying to solve, and highlight questions that stakeholders might have earlier in the process. Storyboarding is a way to explore these scenarios visually, creating an experience for the entire team, and a way to illustrate expectations. Identifying the needs of the users through visual communications tools such as a UX storyboard can bring greater insight into what the user experience should be. As a designer, part of my role is to clearly understand how people are going to use a product I am working on.