Experimentation

Storyboard

The Storyboard is a graphical technique that helps you understand user tasks across a specific process of implementation. It includes pictures or drawings that focus on the user experience. Storyboards can be used to describe the current user experience as well as the desired one.

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Format WorkshopTimeframe 1.5-2 hoursGroup Size 5-10 Facilitation Level BeginnerRequired Materials Whiteboard, Post-its, Paper

Steps

  • Define. What do you want your focus to be? This can be either on a problem, or a set of ideas.
  • Plan. Give people time to think individually about the idea and how an experience could work. Think about the beginning, middle, and end of the experience and translate it into, for your idea what is the problem a user would be solving, how would they seek out a solution and how would they use your solution. Mind mapping and loads of post its can be useful at this stage. This should take about 5-10 min each and be done alone.
  • Create. Give each person a sheet of A4 white paper and fold it across and then three times vertically to create 6 boxes (or just draw them). Give each person a pen and ask them to draw out how they think the idea being considered should work. his is not about high fidelity or being an artist, everyone can join in.
  • Share. Ask everyone to hang their storyboards on the wall and share their ideas. When things are clarified, capture them on post its and add to the boards. This joint review will help identify problems and clarify areas of confusion prior to development.
  • Prioritise. Give everyone 2-3 small stickers and ask them to vote for their favorite board and/or pieces of the experience that they like. One of the key benefits of storyboards is that we can make better informed decisions because the idea is represented by a holistic, end-to-end, visual articulation.
  • Consolidate. Pin the top voted boards up on a wall surface. Discuss the boards in the group (ask questions like: what was important? why was it important? how do the fit together?). Use the wall space to consolidate the best ideas and sections into a single, best-in-class storyboard.

Benefits

  • Allows for early identification of problems before implementation takes place. 
  • It gives users a common point of reference to compare ideas with. 
  • Multiple ideas can be assessed at once.

Tips

Be clear about the purpose. Like all workshop activities, it’s important that you know exactly why you’re conducting the storyboarding activity. You may end up with a range of lively attractive storyboards, but without a clear goal, they may not give you the insights you’re hoping to derive.

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