About Storytelling in Design
The ability to create a great experience is a bit like know how to tell a good story.
Since from the beginning, humans used stories to expose and share facts, feeling, value or dreams. From the first human in the cave to the Egyptian, until these days, we use stories to tell something about us or the world that surrounds us.
But what is a story?
It’s a series of events that happen to someone and how they respond.
Our brain seeks out patterns that it can complete into stories. If that’s true then designers merely have to provide the clues to allow our viewer’s brain to complete the story.
From Story: Style, Structure, Substance, and the Principles of Screenwriting by
Robert McKee, talking about the story “fulfil a profound human need to grasp the patterns of living — not merely as an intellectual exercise, but within a very personal, emotional experience.”
Indeed
It’s very important to create a connection with our audience.
How we will see, there is two way to expose a story.
A formal way, that we usually use during a job interview, and a confidential way, used when we talking with a friend or during a party.
When we make a deep connection with the people, we are able to reveal our humanity and expose in a way that people find real and natural.
So, in our story, we want to generate an impact on our audience.
As designers, we use images to tell a story but not every image can really tell a full story.
We have to add a layer of meaning to the design and not just relying on the image to speak for itself.
A quick example
In this case, we have a simple frame that alone doesn’t have a lot of meaning.
This frame is on a flat surface and this is what we call a visual fact.
But if we add a few words with the image.
Our brain starts to give a specific meaning about this image.
In design, we use the right combination of words and image to tell a story.
The elements of the narrative
In most of the storytelling, what we have is:
- The reason for the story
- The Protagonist
- The conflict
- The structure
- The element of surprise
As designers, our goal is to amuse, instruct or educate the viewer with a specific frame of the story.
Let’s analysed some of the storytelling’s elements.
The Protagonist
It’s the character for whom the event of the story means the most. This can be a person, an object, a product or even the viewer.
Usually, the protagonist is what we identify with.
In a good story, we have a series of action that affects someone.
Get Cosimo Scarpa’s stories in your inbox
Join Medium for free to get updates from this writer.
A clear understanding of the audience can help us to play with the visceral level if the emotion and reach them.
When do we talk about the visceral level?
A good product or services appeal to use on a visceral, behavioural and reflective level. These three levels have been coined from Dom Norman, referral to the emotional impact of the design to the viewer.
The first level, the visceral, deal with a visual appeal and first impression. It’s about how the product or service makes the users feel.
After we have the behavioural level refers to the experience with the product or service in use from the users. In this level, our users think about the usability.
In the ends, we have a reflective level that refers to the users’ reflection about the product, what they think about that.
These three levels all combined, form the entire product experience.
A good way to begin our process is by asking:
- Who is the protagonist in this situation that I’m building?
- How or what are the opposing forces?
- What is the story problem?
The elements of surprise
In a story, we use this element to:
- humour
- poignancy
- suspense
We have to create a tiny intellectual challenge in our design, which requires from the viewer to fill in the blank and come to a conclusion, however simple.
Using cleverly the surprise element, we will impress the users enough to remember it.
The surprise element is making the idea stick but only creating an atmosphere of familiarity that the surprise can happen.
The conflict
There is no story without a conflict.
There is no new story, but only new details and new characters to inhabit them. So we use some of the most classic tales to find a simple conflict to use.
There are also some very powerful elements to consider during the composition.
Symbolism
What is a symbol?
An object representing a concept.
During the realising of our design, we need to be really careful about which symbols we use, if it’s negative or positive to the viewers and if it’s right for that context.
Scrutinise always the design work to avoid or hidden negative symbolism.
In advertising is very powerful but the symbolism has to be clear because isn’t always so obvious.
Colour and mood
The colour can affects mood and emotion. The use of the colour as the symbolism, need to be selected accurately based on a different context.
For example, a colour can have a specific meaning East cultures but can be totally different in the West one.
Everytime we design for a specific event like wedding, births or religious ceremonies, we have to be careful about the colour selection.
By the way, don’t overthink and pick the colour that you feel that can connect the product with the audience and stimulate the visceral reaction.
Also, it helps to emphasise the mood and sense of place in the story.
Quick summary
- Stories help us to connect with our audience.
- Once we established the connection, our design will reach them in a meaningful way.
- Design that makes use of storytelling, stimulate emotion and then will tickle the brain.
- Use narrative, protagonist and conflict to realise a design that trig intrigue and humour.
Conclusion
Applying storytelling techniques and methods can help our UX Design and process in many different ways.
Creating personas, mapping user journey, writing user stories and all the rest of the design process, they all will help to tell a story that will reach our audience.
Thanks for reading, clap for the support, follow for more (:
