ep. 57: Elevating Design Communication Through Storytelling
5 min read
Think back to the last presentation you attended at work. Did it captivate you, or did you find yourself checking emails and multitasking within the first five minutes?
Chances are, if you stayed engaged, the presenter harnessed the power of storytelling. Storytelling was the centerpiece of last week’s Communicating Design module in my Intro to UX Design class at UC Berkeley. We explored how compelling narratives can transform case studies, portfolios, and interviews. Our discussions were enriched by insights from industry guest lecturers at Meta.
This episode is the first in a two-part series inspired by those lectures. Today, I’ll break down what storytelling means in the context of design communication and how it can be your secret weapon for clarity, alignment, and action. Next week, I’ll dive deeper into practical applications for case studies, portfolios, and interviews, with actionable takeaways for both early-career practitioners navigating the job market and seasoned professionals looking to sharpen their approach. Let’s dive in.
What is Storytelling?
Think back to middle-school English class - you might recall learning about the basic structure of a story: exposition, inciting incident, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution.
Known as Freytag’s Pyramid, this framework, introduced by 19th-century novelist Gustav Freytag, has become a cornerstone of Western storytelling. Its step-by-step progression evokes emotion and keeps your audience engaged.
Freytag’s Pyramid isn’t just for writers and playwrights - it’s a powerful framework for presenting work in business contexts, especially when communicating design. Let’s break it down and apply it to a design case study:
Exposition: Begin by setting the stage. Introduce the context, the problem space, and the stakeholders involved. Clearly outline the "who," "what," and "why" behind your design project, keeping in mind that your audience may lack the technical expertise or deep familiarity with your product - tailor your context accordingly.
Inciting Incident: Define the core challenge or people problems driving your work. Highlight the tension or gap that demands a design solution.
Rising Action: Walk through the journey of discovery. Share the research, ideation, and iterations that built momentum toward your solution, emphasizing key insights and decisions along the way.
Climax: Reveal the design solution as the pivotal moment - the "aha" where everything comes together.
Falling Action: Showcase how the solution was implemented. Include user feedback and iterations to highlight the refinement process.
Resolution: Summarize the impact of your solution, lessons learned, and next steps.
By following this structure, you bring your design process to life, connecting the audience to the "why" behind your work. This approach not only fosters alignment but also inspires action, making your presentation memorable and effective.
Know Your Audience
I’ve mentioned your audience several times - now let’s take a moment to reflect: Who is your audience? Put yourself in their shoes and think about the context they need for your story to resonate and make sense.
Chances are, your audience consists of busy people juggling multiple priorities. To capture their attention and make an impact, focus on the one key message - or at most, three - that you want them to remember or act on. Keep it clear, concise, and actionable.
Be Human-Centered, But Don’t Forget Business Impact
Focusing on the people you are designing for helps align your team around customer needs. To do this effectively, highlight the current ‘people problems’ you’re addressing, what’s required to solve them, and the overall user value your work delivers (more on this next week).
At the same time, it’s crucial to tie your work to measurable business impact. This could mean connecting your findings to objectives and key results (OKRs) in your story's exposition and reinforcing them in your Resolution with a clear call to action. For instance, if your design research reveals that users are abandoning the sign-up process for a subscription-based app, link this insight to your company’s OKR of boosting trial-to-paid conversions by 20% this quarter. Then, present actionable recommendations to address this issue and help achieve the goal. This approach ensures your work resonates with both user-centered and business-driven priorities.
In Summary
Storytelling Engages, Aligns, and Inspires Action: Structuring your design narrative using Freytag’s Pyramid - exposition, inciting incident, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution - brings your process to life. This approach keeps your audience engaged, connects them to the “why” behind your work, and fosters alignment while inspiring action.
Know Your Audience and Deliver Clear, Actionable Messages: Empathize with your audience by considering their perspective and priorities. Focus on one to three key messages or actions you want them to take, ensuring your story is concise, relevant, and impactful for busy stakeholders.
Be Human-Centered, But Don’t Forget Business Impact: Addressing people problems in your communication aligns your team around customer needs, but it’s equally important to connect your work to measurable business impact, such as OKRs.
Next week, we’ll dive deeper into the topic of storytelling for design communication. We’ll cover how storytelling can enhance design case studies, portfolios, and interviews, along with key insights from our guest lecturers. Wishing you a great week ahead, and a Happy Thanksgiving to all my American readers!
Human-Computer Interaction News
How Singapore Became the Ideal Testing Ground for Self-driving Cars: Singapore is leading in autonomous vehicle adoption, deploying self-driving buses, freight vehicles, and street sweepers to address labor shortages and optimize land use. Clear regulations and high consumer acceptance have attracted foreign AV firms, offering a model for other countries.
Synchronized Movement Between Robots and Humans Builds Trust: A University of Bristol study found that synchronized movements between humans and robots in close proximity improve trust in human-robot teams. This research suggests that spatial coordination can predict and repair trust dynamics, enabling more effective human-robot collaboration.
AI Eats the World Trend Report: Every year, Benedict Evans shares a comprehensive presentation exploring macro and strategic trends in the tech industry. This year’s insights include ChatGPT interest versus usage, consideration of whether LLMs will keep scaling, why/when genAI is useful, how we deploy genAI, and broader business trends like the metaverse and e-commerce.
Designing emerging technology products? Sendfull can help you find product-market fit. Reach out at hello@sendfull.com
That’s a wrap 🌯 . More human-computer interaction news from Sendfull next week.