# Storyboards

Summary of method
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Storyboarding is a visual storytelling method that is used to illustrate a user's journey through a product or system. They are similar to comic strips and involve creating a sequence of drawings or sketches that represent key interactions and touchpoints in the user experience. Storyboarding can be a complement to other methods, such as [personas](/H1wfnh9up), [scenarios](/ByHgJMnup) and [journeymaps](/By_VIX2OT).

Criticisms of method
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Similar to the methods mentioned above, storyboarding can risk being oversimplified or biased by the people who create them.

Example of method
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Example storyboard of VR tourism application - credit 2022 UX cohort


Example storyboard of smart glasses for running - credit 2022 UX cohort

Common steps for storyboard creation
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1. Select character(s), identify the narrative and the scenes that you want to convey
1. Define details and captions
1. Create the visuals

When to use this method
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This method can be used for ideating solutions to a defined problem, as it can provide additional visual context for understanding the environmental contexts in which people might be using a particular product or service. However, the main strength of storyboarding might be immediately after an ideation stage as they are useful for communicating ideas to others, for example to get feedback on ideas from people outside the immediate design team.

# **Practicing method**

Overview
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* *Time:* 40-50 minutes
* *Purpose*: to produce a storyboard
* *Materials or tools*: digital or analogue notepad, miro, storyboarding templates

Steps
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1. Divide into groups of 4-6 people
2. DO ONE of the following

Create a storyboard that illustrates the user experience of selecting and buying a new mobile phone. You might choose as a character the following (and you might build on your previous scenario if you followed that worksheet already):
* Parent buying the first phone for a 7-year-old daughter
* Retired elderly man buying a phone for himself
* Young adult buying a phone as a gift for their spouse
* Other, free choice

Create a storyboard that illustrates the user experience of a Smart City Navigation App designed to help one of the following navigate by different transport meothds around a futuristic urban environment:
* An elderly resident
* A business commuter in their mid twenties
* A family of tourists visiting the city for the first time
* Other, free choice

3. Swap your storyboard with a different group.
4. Assess the storyboard from the other group. What do you understand from this storyboard. Is it easy to understand important aspects such as pain points, or key innovations? Are there unecessary details?

**Further Reading**
Course Textbook - Subchapter 11.6.1 – Generating Storyboards from Scenarios

###### tags: `method`