Designing a Story or: Storytelling your Design
Storytelling: Nature’s way of learning
“I want to tell you a story….” is a guaranteed means of drawing attention and shutting people up. Sharing stories has been the most important way of teaching and learning since the early ages of mankind. Wall paintings in caves, fairy tales, movies; all great examples of how stories help us understand ideas, empathise and learn new skills. Or in the words of linguist and anthropologist Mary C. Bateson:
“the human species thinks in metaphors and learns through stories”
Metaphors help us to better understand abstract concepts. Using elements we recognise from our lives, humans have the power of making intangible matters understandable to each other by creating a story that we can relate to. However, the storyteller should use story elements that his or her audience can relate to, otherwise the message or lesson will be lost.
As “Empathise” is the first step in most good interaction design processes, it is only natural that storytelling plays a part in concept development. Empathy is an important product of good storytelling. By creating characters in a story and empathising with them, designers are able to better communicate about and with their target audience.
Empathy may even work the other way around by helping the designer convey a message or feeling to the user. Mother Nature kicks in to empower your stories. Our brain consists roughly of 2 parts: the new brain and the old brain. Storytelling touches both parts of the brain.
The new brain helps us bond on a social level. It allows us to connect to fictive or non-fictive characters we read about or follow on our screens or in the real world. This works great in books, movies and even video games. Many companies use gamification today to make boring tasks more interesting. Gamification is a variant on storytelling where the storyteller doesn’t decide the path of the audience, but the audience makes decisions that shape the story themselves.
The old brain controls our instinct. While being immersed in a story, the audience can physically experience discomfort, feel exhilarated or even fear. If you, as a designer, are able to harness this power, you can offer your audience a genuine user experience.
Ancient rules in modern UX
The concept of Empathy goes back a long way. Aristotle wrote down the 7 elements of good storytelling a long time ago (roughly 350 BC, and he called it "Drama" instead of storytelling). Each of these elements can be translated to principles of design that are still valid today. By paying attention to different levels of detail and applying this knowledge, you are able to cover the entire design process to get to a complete and well substantiated concept.
Plot | User journey & goals
When we approach the storytelling elements top-down, we first encounter the plot: the overall storyline. This is the lion’s share of your story and allows your audience to journey from the beginning of the story to the end. In a classical story, the plot tells us what the hero or heroes experience. Usually this is a storyline that ties together several characters, events and locations.
Loosely translated, the plot is your collection of user journeys and goals. It tells the story of your user that wants to travel from one place to another, or perform several actions and reach an end result. The user is your hero and as designer, you are the writer who decides what happens to the hero and the journey he or she will be able to take.
Characters | Users / target audience
In our traditional story, the characters are the people the reader can empathise or sympathise with. In some stories the hero is the brave loner, that tackles all problems on his or her own. Then again, some heroes need a sidekick. A good story has different characters with different goals and attitudes.
As a designer you will recognise the role of some characters in your users. Not only your target audience, but also elements in your concept may act as characters that the user will have to interact with. A support chat bot is an obvious example of such a non-human character. You could also think about a smart menu bar as a character because it interacts and communicates with your user in a specific way.
Theme | “Our” approach to the solution
A theme makes a story appealing to a certain audience. In a book, the theme can be described as a genre such as science-fiction or romance. The theme can also be something abstract like “revenge” if the writer chooses to make his or her characters and storylines hook into that type of behaviour.
In design, the theme is “our” approach to the solution. In a market where competitors deal with similar or even the same plot and characters, the theme can be you differentiator. The way you choose to approach a problem should define what you value as a designer or company. If you choose your theme wisely, this will make you stand out as a company and appeal to the right target audience.
Dialog or Diction | Tone of the text & type of communication
When addressing a young audience, the storyteller uses different words and a different tone of voice than when talking to a more mature audience. Just try comparing a ‘Miffy’ children’s book to a Tolstoy novel. I’m pretty sure you could tell the difference. It is important to tailor your diction to the people that need to understand the message or take action.
The choice of icons (visual language), typeface and tone of the text greatly influence the effectivity of your concept. If your target user isn’t able to understand your concept, or doesn’t find the type of communication appealing, your concept will most likely fail. When you start writing texts or dialogs for your concept, be it a website or an interactive toy, make sure you write suitable texts and preferably perform a user test to finetune your dialog with the user. Choosing the right medium for your communication helps getting the message across to your audience.
Melody | Recognisable for the user, a logical base
Aristotle describes this element of successful storytelling as an important ingredient that binds the story together. Just like in a song, the melody is a distinct part that the audience will recognise a piece by.
In your design, melody is the logical base that makes your concept recognizable for the user. If you visit a webshop, you expect a sort of catalog with filter possibilities, a search bar and a shopping cart. When designing a new webshop, it may be wise to take into account that your target user expects to find these elements or at least a variant on it. These form a foundation for the user interaction with your concept since their existing knowledge of such systems gives them a headstart in the learning curve. And who doesn’t like a headstart?
Decor | Graphic design that compliments the above
A good play is set in a beautiful decor. Set dressing is a design profession on its own, but that is not what most of us designers do nowadays. In ancient times the decor consisted mostly of wooden pieces, masks and a few props in a theatre or amphitheatre. The decor should fit the story. If you tell a historically accurate story about medieval knights, a set full of alien spaceships and pink rocks might be a bad idea.
Nowadays, the decor of our story is the visual and/or graphic design. It is important that your concept appeals to your user in both appearance and atmosphere. Make sure your visual design compliments the elements we discussed before. Your decor helps the users find their way through the story of your concept and communicates your message in an implicit way. Just like the spaceships in a medieval play, bad choice of graphics can hurt your credibility.
Spectacle | Clever, surprising, impressive little details
Finally, the moment the audience has been waiting for! What good is a movie without a climax or two? The spectacle helps the entire story by grasping the focus of the audience, holding it and letting them in on an experience of transformation and growth where a character flourishes through success or failure.
In Melody we just talked about how we want our design to be recognisable and offer the user something that feels familiar. In the Spectacle it is your time to be creative, shine and impress your audience! Find out what drives your story and in the key moments in your storyline, add extras. These extras can be in the form of unique user interactions, stunning animations or graphics or even surprising use of technology to lift your concept to a whole new level and make it memorable.
Make your story stick
Like all stories, you want your design to stick with your audience. Mix all the above ingredients in the right proportions and you will unlock the full potential in reaching your target users. Storytelling may seem like a buzzword right now, but it is rightly so. Many people call themselves storytellers on Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn. But few know the tricks there are to telling a compelling story through another medium than words. After reading this article you will hopefully have a better understanding of the versatile ways in which you can apply true storytelling and its techniques to create better (UX) design.
