Telling design stories
How to use storytelling to designers’ advantage
Once upon a time, in a land far, far away, someone came up with something called:
Storytelling.
It turns non-believers into advocates, strangers into lovers, prospects into loyal customers. In fact, it’s such a powerful tool that we thought of digging it up a little bit to share some amazing tips (no matter which business you’re in):
- 22 Rules to Perfect Storytelling (by the guys at Pixar, some of the most-loved storytellers out there)
- The Science of Storytelling
- The 4 Truths of a Storyteller
Be it in a UX team or design agency, there’s so much you can achieve with compelling storytelling. From prospect and client meetings to daily design work. Here’s just a small list:
Help clients and managers understand your end user experience
User stories are often underrated. And that’s because they’re regarded by many as just another formal tool that’s on the way of a great design. They take different shapes and are adapted to different roles — product owners, developers, UX designers and researchers. The most important aspect of user stories, however, is their power to convey meaning. They’re all able to summarize user needs, feelings, and pain points in a very intuitive way. They show where the users are coming from and where they are heading to (just like main characters in a story). Use it to your advantage when trying to convince stakeholders of your design decisions. Try to make them less technical and more visual. The wider is the audience that can grasp your stories, the more meaningful they’ll be.
Inspire designers with the idea of progression, use the right amount of visuals and text
Give designers too little information, and they’ll have nowhere to go. Give them too much, and they’ll be lost. When briefing fellow UX/UI designers with user research or benchmark findings, try to find the right balance and use storytelling as your guide. Concise text will help them focus on what matters and clear visuals will give them the right sense of context. All stories have a scope, a beginning, and an end. For example, think of some benchmark study on mobility apps. Instead of simply listing the existing alternatives in the market, you may start your story by introducing the first characters and disruptors in the industry (e.g. Uber); why did they succeed; who have been their villains (i.e. competitors, challenges) or their sidekicks (i.e key partnerships); where do they want to go; or who is their muse (i.e. target market). It’s universal language that speaks to everyone. But it doesn’t mean designers will be limited to create — it means they will always remember why and for whom they are designing for.
Branding — Present your propositions intuitively, tell where a brand is coming from, and where it’s heading
Sometimes good UX requires relevant branding. Brands may also influence emotions and set the right tone for desired experiences. That being said, it’s not so easy to sell a new brand to a client or propose a re-branding to your team. Today, a brand is much more than a logo, tagline and simple value proposition. It’s the result of every single experience customers have with a company’s product and its messaging. And because UX designers are already involved with in-product experiences, storytelling may come in really handy here. Think of a story featuring customers and a product. How did they first meet? How does the relationship develop? And how do they make their way to a happy ending? Try using that mindset and you‘ll notice how this big branding step may seem much more natural to your audience.
Tell prospects why they should do business with you, show sample projects and convince them with key arguments
Everyone wants their prospect meetings to be the beginning of a love story. So why not approach those meetings with storytelling? New acquaintances are interested in knowing each other’s past, present, and future goals. How did they arrive at this point and where do they want to go (together). Summarize you company/agency’s past with important facts and sample projects. It’s very important not to leave the prospect out of the story! They’re ready to identify themselves with your story, so all you need to do is welcome them in — show what you have in common and what you want to achieve together. Remember to keep the right balance in order to catch your prospects’ attention and make your way through key arguments (the ‘lessons of the story’).
At Caravel, we use our Stories feature to support each of those scenarios. We found it makes it simple to present stories in a visually engaging way, help our team focus on what matters, and capture people’s attention with super clean slides.
Storytelling is a very powerful tool. But it won’t have much value if used without context. With Caravel, we also like to link particular stories to existing UX content — user personas, wireframes, UI screens, front-end code, and much more. That way we keep our stories much more straightforward and actionable.
