This week featured a guest lecture from Big Motive about Story Telling in design. With this modules projects being around the art direction visual side of story telling, getting to learn about story telling in the way it relates to real world UX was incredibly useful. One of the main points of the lecture was how Aristotles 7 elements of story relate to design:
What was most interesting to me about this was how it can fit into any design project, was complex functional websites, to fun experience focussed design. The idea of story telling within any product was really interesting due to the examples shown in the lecture. One of which was a pain management app and it was explained to us how building up a visual identity and introducing that to the user gradually was used to subconsciously explain what some of the more abstract visual aspects meant to the user. I think it’s really interesting to see how story telling doesn’t have to literally be used to tell a story, but can be used to introduce ideas and themes of a product without having to just document this through text.
Another interesting thing from the lecture was how storytelling doesn’t just have to be for the user. The example shown here was from a service design project and was some illustrations to help explain the situations the users where facing to the client. It helped to contextualise the problems the designers had identified and explain them to a client in a more empathetic way. The idea of using story telling to explain the product or design to the person who commissioned it was really interesting and shows just how powerful story telling can be. In fact I think understanding this example showed me something about story telling I hadn’t realised before. Story telling isn’t just a way of explaining events to people, but is a way of explaining anything to people. People prefer to emphasise and view things in a relatable way, so utilising story telling can help to present an idea in a way people understand better. It’s something I can identify I already do to an extend because its so inherent, but now understanding this as a concept will allow me to utilise story telling far more effectively and give people a better experience.