Please see also: Storyboarding Tutorial
Learning Objectives
- Foundation understanding of storyboarding- what it is, when to use it, and how
- Working fluency in the storyboarding process
- Working fluency in application of storyboards for user experience (UX) development:
- Enhance operational personas
- Narrate a customer journey
- Improve agile user stories
- Apply the Hook Framework
Preparation & Prerequisites
The casual user can simply print out the storyboarding squares below (3 of each per person or print as you need them) and follow the slides below, supplemented if you like by the screencast on the storyboarding tutorial page.
Instructor notes: The checklists below describe ‘minimum viable preparation’ and additional related preparation.
Minimum Viable Preparation
- Review the slides and materials below
- Review the Storyboarding Tutorial (skip the slides- they’re the same as below; but there’s a screencast to explain them)
- Print an organize the storyboarding squares (Three copies of each page per student is what I’d recommend if you have a group over 5. Otherwise, you can just print a quantity of them and let the students grab what they want, buffet style.)
Additional Preparation
Review the tutorials on the underlying tools and frameworks from the exercises:
If you’re interested in the surrounding body of work on Venture Design, see that link and if you’re interested in a structure program for product design & entre/intra-preneurship, check out Startup Sprints.
Materials
1. Slides
The following are the workshop slides:
2. Storyboarding Squares
For workshops, group exercises, and generally getting started with storyboarding, I like to use these paper squares and a sharpie/pen. The PDF you can download here has a set of typical scenes which you can print out and use. They do need to be cut or ripped since there are two/page. You’ll find cutting marks and the individual pages and what I actually like to do is use a metal ruler and just rip them (see left). I created them with the online tool, StoryboardThat.com and you may find you want to go there and create your own (not to mention creating digital storyboards once you’re ready). If you want to use the above squares in the PDF on Storyboardthat.com, you can copy the storyboard template using the preceding link.
3. Previews Squares (optional)
These are strictly optional, but when I bind up the storyboarding squares for students, I noticed that they then were spending a lot of time sorting through them to find the backdrops they want. The agenda below is pretty speedy, and I found that if I put up full (8.5″x11″) ‘previews’ of what was on the different squares, it helped the students decide and then locate what they wanted quicker. If you want to print these and tape them to the wall, you may find it helps the experience:
PREVIEW SQUARES FOR DISPLAY
4. A Product Idea to Work
Since the workshop involves sitting down and creating storyboards, all the participants will need to have an idea to use. It doesn’t necessarily have to be in an advance state of planning- as long as they generally know what it is and who it’s for, I think you’ll find it’s sufficient. For those without an idea (or wondering what level of description will work), here are some sample ideas: Venture Concepts.
Workshop Agenda
| Item | Time (min.) | Materials & Technique |
| Classroom preparation | (var.) | See ‘Preparation‘ section above |
| Does everyone have a product where they know the customer that they can use for the storyboarding exercises? Or do you need a synthetic idea? | 5 | Slides: 1-6. Where ‘no’, pass out synthetic ideas. Where yes, have them create a positioning statement |
| Intro to storyboarding and Venture Design | 5 | Slides: 7-19 |
| Intro to design thinking: personas & needfinding |
5 | Slides: 20-32 |
| Structured problem scenarios and creating a ‘before and after’ narrative | 3 | Slides: 33-40 |
| EXERCISE: Creating a ‘before and after’ board | 10 | Slide 41 & storyboarding squares |
| EXERCISE: Peer presentations of before and after boards | 4 | Slide 42 |
| Intro to storyboarding AIDA(OR) | 5 | Slides: 43-50 |
| Using Think-See-Feel-Do to detail the customer journey | 5 | Slides: 51-56 |
| EXERCISE: Storyboarding AIDAOR | 10 | Slide 57 & storyboarding squares |
| EXERCISE: Use Think-See-Feel-Do to detail the customer journey | 10 | Slide 58 & storyboarding squares |
| Peer presentations | 4 | Slide 59 |
| BREAK | 5 (~70 min) |
|
| Introduction to agile user stories | 5 | Slides: 60-63 |
| EXERCISE: Write an epic agile user story | 4 | Slide: 64 |
| EXERCISE: Storyboard an epic story | 10 | Slide: 65 |
| Introducing the Hook Framework | 7 | Slides: 66-70 |
| EXERCISE: the Hook Framework | 10 | Slide 71 |
| Storyboards IRL (‘in real life’) | 7 | Slide: 72-74 |
| Demo: storyboardthat.com (OPTIONAL) | 3 | Slide: 75 |
| Summary and close | 2 | Slides: 76-77 |
