Storyboard

Q: Do you need to know how to draw to create a storyboard?

Even though it is more pleasant and easier to get ideas across with a deft pencil stroke, "stick figures" and text annotations let anyone get started on creating a storyboard. Substance matters more than form.

Q: What is the difference between a storyboard and a user journey map?

A storyboard is there to describe, in a sequence, the standout moments you want to illustrate. It is therefore an excerpt of an experience. A storyboard is sometimes used to describe one particular stage of a journey map.

Q: At what point in the project do you use a storyboard?

In ideation, to explore a service concept and put it to a team before designing anything. In specification, later on, to frame the sequence of a specific interaction before mockup work. The two uses share the same name but look nothing alike: the first stays deliberately rough; the second demands rigour about states and transitions.

Q: Can you test a storyboard with users?

Yes, and it is one of its lesser-known uses. Showing a sequence of frames to a user lets you gather reactions to a scenario before a prototype exists, which works well remotely. The feedback focuses on the situation being told rather than on the interface, avoiding premature comments about colours or buttons.

Design deliverable

The UX storyboard, illustrating a usage scenario

The storyboard, much like in film or animation, is a tool that UX designers use to help map the user experience of a product or service. It gives designers an overview and surfaces potential problems or areas for improvement. The storyboard can also be used to communicate the design to stakeholders and gather their feedback. Creating a storyboard is a crucial step in the UX design process, because it lets designers think through the user experience from start to finish and surface any potential issue. It also helps designers communicate their ideas to stakeholders and get feedback on the design. If you're working on a UX project, creating a storyboard is an essential piece of the UX design process.

What is a storyboard for?

Mapping the user experience of a product or service,
Having an overview
Surfacing potential problems or areas for improvement
Communicating the design to stakeholders and gathering their feedback
Letting you think through the user experience from start to finish and surface every friction point
Sequencing steps at the key moments of the experience

Why build a storyboard?

Assessing usage scenarios with the team or the target users of a project
Exploring solutions to friction points in the user journeys
Specifying the order of steps in an interaction journey
Communicating solutions to project contributors.

The scenario

To start, you need to define the main scenario of the storyboard. That lets you focus on the narrative and the ideas you want to illustrate. Thinking about the text before starting to draw nudges you to focus on the important concepts rather than the visual rendering.

Journey steps and interactions

Next, you bring in the interactions and how they're sequenced, while accounting for how the user feels. The storyboard highlights the situation the user is in, what they feel at each step, the problem they face, and the response the product or service provides.

The frames (or the speech bubbles for comic-book fans)

It's only after this preparation that each step turns into an illustrated frame. You can leave a comment below each frame to give more context, or show the character's thinking with speech bubbles. From there, it's about moving on to the more "design" side by adding details, colours, textures and so on, to make the storyboard as immersive as possible.

Do you need to know how to draw to create a storyboard?

What is the difference between a storyboard and a user journey map?

At what point in the project do you use a storyboard?

Can you test a storyboard with users?

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Related methods

Co-design

Drawing on collective intelligence, these workshops align stakeholders and surface solutions with the team and/or the end users.

Site map

A site map of a website or app reflects the hierarchical, logical way its pages and features are organised. Proposing a sound site map means choosing a categorisation that fits the mental model users already have.

User flow

The user flow is a visual representation that models the paths a user can take when going through a site or an app.

Sketching

Sketching is a technique for creating interfaces as drawings, most often by hand. It is often used in co-design workshops.

Wireframe

A mockup with no graphic elements, describing the zones and essential components an interface should contain.

User journey

The user journey breaks a process down into steps to surface user needs and expectations for a given goal.

UX mapping

UX mapping represents a concept or a problem in a simplified form, to make it easier to understand and take ownership of.

Experience map

The experience map focuses on the visible part of the experience: what a user goes through with a service or product, before, during and after.

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