The Power of Story
I believe that stories are our most effective tool we have as humans to convey meaning and in that way, it is certainly one of the most powerful tools in the design toolkit. As designers, everything that we create starts as an idea. Whether communicating insights gained from design research or communicating the concept for a solution, it all comes down to helping other people to see the thing that we see in our mind’s eye. In order for us to be successful in helping others to understand our ideas in the ways that we do, we have to find some way to reify that idea in the minds of others. Storytelling helps us to do that.
Many, including myself, believe that the value of design is that it allows for the socialization and adoption of new ideas and innovations toward creating new futures. Inherent in this definition of value is a call to action, a call for individuals to change, to move forward in a prescribed direction. In order to do this we have to present our ideas in ways that resonate with our audience. In her book, Resonate, Nancy Duarte defines resonance as “something that occurs when an object’s natural vibration frequency responds to an external stimulus of the same frequency”. Essentially resonance is made possible through deep connection with the external stimulus, which for designers are our ideas. We have to connect on an emotional level with others in order to both help them to understand our ideas and to feel compelled to act on the idea. We can present all of the facts in the world but facts alone won’t cause people to move, but a good story will. Stories allow us to place our idea in a context that connects with the values, beliefs, and norms of our audience, in order to help them to better understand our idea in the context of their own lives. John Seeley Brown is quoted in Communicating the New by Kim Erwin, as saying: “
It’s never enough just to just tell people about some new insight. Rather you have to get them to experience it in a way that evokes its power and possibility. Instead of pouring knowledge into people’s heads, you need to help them to grind a new set of eyeglasses so they can see the world in a new way.”
That is the power of story.
