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The storyboard
Represent the major stages of a process or solution with visual stories.
Pratique
Aim
Storyboards enable a group to summarise and visually project themselves into the user experience. Using this tool, participants of your workshops can quickly test out a solution before deciding to go ahead with it or not.
Based on a UX or Design Thinking approach, storyboards are a form of prototyping.
Instructions
Time needed: 20 minutes
Materials:
- A4 sheets or Post-it notes
- Something to write with
In the world of cinema, a storyboard is a graphic representation of how each scene will unfold, created before filming commences. It looks a bit like a comic strip, with each panel representing a different shot.
Key steps
Individually
- Each participant takes an A4 sheet and folds it in half three times. When they open it up again, there will be eight boxes (they can go over them with a pen to make them clearer).
- They have 8 minutes in total to draw an 8-step storyboard of how their solution would work and how it would be implemented by the user.
- In small groups
- Split the group into smaller sub-groups of 4 to 5 people.
- Everyone takes it in turn to explain their storyboard to the other members of their sub-group.
- Together, they must choose 5 to 6 key stages to create a new storyboard.
- They must explain each stage in detail and give each one a title.
- As a whole group
Bring all the sub-groups back together in one large circle:
- Ask the sub-groups to take it in turns to explain their storyboard.
- Invite the participants to compare their storyboards:
- Are some very different from others?
- Are there any essential stages that crop up in all of them?
- Are there any stages that seem a bit vague to some people?
- Finally, ask the participants to piece together a new storyboard, based on those they have seen. This task can be done at the end of the workshop or during a future session.
Tips and advice
- There are a number of online tools you can use to create an online storyboard: wideo.co, boords.com, creately.com, canva.com
- Feel free to submit the storyboard to the users themselves, or to other stakeholders so that you can refine your idea before moving onto a more refined prototype.