Have you got a great story?
We're looking for a few good stories.
Specifically, we'd like examples of how you use storytelling to help inform your design process or to communicate a design.
What's worked for you? Or did you try an idea that fell flat?
We'd like a rich selection of samples of different storytelling styles to include in the book. Maybe yours will be one of them.
Comments
Hi Whitney,
I recently used Citizen Kane and circular narrative to help explain how information is disseminated in social media and multi-tenant architecture in a presentation.
The slides are up here: http://is.gd/jwla
Hope it helps,
Michael
Posted by: Michael Leis | February 14, 2009 9:10 AM
I wrote an article on story-centered design for my blog some time ago.
http://hughgrahamcreative.com/story-centered-design/
and also spoke of it extensively in an article on design strategy:
http://hughgrahamcreative.com/2008/11/10/design-strategy-an-overview/
Generally speaking, stories are most valuable as generative and communications tools, and are most effective when based on as much research as you can afford for the project.
The basic approach (for me) is working from research to personas and scenarios - the scenarios are refined and worked into low fidelity prototypes or storyboards, and further refined in developing the final solution. The scenarios are also useful (much like use cases for programmers) to make sure everyone is on the same page, and also to build buy-in from stakeholders outside the design and development team.
It's 'get out of your head' design, perfect for platform and service design engagements.
I've got examples of course, but most of them are owned by my clients.
-Hugh
Posted by: Hugh Graham | February 14, 2009 4:18 PM
TR Flanagan, TR 2008. Scripting a Collaborative Narrative: An Approach for Spanning Boundaries. Design Management Review, 19(3):80-86.
The design challenge was to create a visual image of consensus that was established through a focused dialogue among 45 design sector stakeholders. The artifact is required to evoke emotions that will drive action, not only among the group that created the artifact, but among those who encounter it. As a fusion of text and spatial form, it evokes focused questions with play on observers need for a clear sense of common purpose while preserving an inclusive -- though also ambiguous -- sense of commonality. The artifact defined a high level approach for integrating a regional creative economy into an economic development planning process while avoiding constructing a prescriptive definition of "creative economy" that could potentially limit participation of creative citizens from different walks of life.
Posted by: Tom_Flanagan | February 17, 2009 8:29 AM
We've had success by reframing 'the customer experience' into the 'the customer journey'. This encourages thinking about things in an end-to-end fashion (focused on goal resolution), as opposed to just a collection of snapshot experiences.
I'd be happy to provide some examples of how this concept was applied to our problem domain.
Posted by: Ben Werner | February 23, 2009 5:12 PM
Thank you all. These are wonderful examples. We'll be in touch!
Posted by: Whitney Quesenbery | February 25, 2009 5:45 PM
Are you familiar with the work of Charlotte Linde? She's written two books that seem related to your work (one older, a "classic", and one published just last year).
Life Stories: The Creation of Coherence (1993 Oxford University Press)
ISBN13: 9780195073737
ISBN10: 0195073738
and more recently
Working the Past: Narrative and Institutional Memory (2008 Oxford University Press)
ISBN13: 9780195140293
ISBN10: 019514029X
Posted by: Nancy Frishberg | February 26, 2009 6:31 PM
Hi Nancy - I'm reading Working the Past right now. It's very interesting. Whitney
Posted by: Whitney Quesenbery | February 26, 2009 7:05 PM
Thank you all for your comments so far. I actually own the Lind book "Life Stories", but haven't opened it in some time. I'll dig it out. Thanks for the suggestion.
-Kevin
Posted by: Kevin Brooks | March 1, 2009 9:52 PM
Some thoughts:
1. H/Bollywood is probably a good place to find people who can tell stories, even better the people who produce tv serials. How do you get people to watch a tv program every week, time and time again ... And games - how much time do people spend playing games ...
You probably know this guy, David Freeman, but he seems to be really good at reverse engineering stories and its elements. He has a book on games:
Creating Emotion in Games: The Art and Craft of Emotioneering (Link Amazon: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Creating-Emotion-Games-Craft-Emotioneering/dp/1592730078/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1244065137&sr=8-1
and gives a workshop Beyond Structure. Link workshop: http://www.beyondstructure.com/start.php
2. I once heard (at IIT Bombay, Prof. Anirudha Joshi) an apocryphal? story about Steve Jobs asking programmers how many lives they were going to save. He told them first how long it takes to boot a Mac and then the times a user boots his Mac multiplied by the number of users = x years = y lives. Sounds engaging, doesn't it? They might have worked their ..... off. Also nicer to tell an attractive lady you meet in a bar in response to her question: " So what do you do ...?"
Audience's Framework:
when I advised IT-specialists on financial planning I always asked them who used a backup, and when they all confirmed, I told them that insurance is another form of backup. Whereas their resume is an interface, and you certainly hope the data is formatted well, in the right language and flows at the right speed. This is expandable to about every customer (medical doctors and financial health, architects need a solid foundation etc.) Consistency/commitment works well here, you can build on it.
3. "Made to stick" is nice as well, but you know them. "Springboard story" is interesting, but he could also have saved a lot of pages. Story is nice though. You can also dive into research on myths (Levi-Strauss etc.) and religion "the Book(s)".
Look forward to your book, wishing you flowing ink, sharp pencils and loving keyboards!
Vincent
Posted by: Vincent van der Lubbe | June 3, 2009 4:25 PM
Vincent -
You are absolutely right about people from theatre, movies and games being masters at crafting stories to create an emotional effect.
In my "past life" as a lighting designer for theatre, I used to think of myself as the director of photography, adding the focus and emotional overtones to the work of the actors/director as they shaped each scene.
- Whitney
Posted by: Whitney | June 3, 2009 6:30 PM