The term “storytelling” has come into its own lately as a term that’s been embraced — and sometimes over-used — in design.
Are we really storytellers? Yes… and no. But mostly, yes.
I ran across this video the other day:
[During my first month at IDEO, I had the great fortune of working closely Stefan in a series of workshops. I got to peek behind the curtain. As a brilliant provocateur, he’ is as self-aware as they come — and fully cognizant that he participates in the same bullshit that he lampoons. That’s one of the reasons, perhaps, that it comes across as so genuine.]
In that remaining half, though, let’s acknowledge that creating compelling and engaging narrative structures and connecting to our audiences on an emotional level does make communication more effective. For instance, I could tell you over-and-over how important it is to spell check and proof-read your work, but when I tell you about the time that a fellow designer sent out 3-million mailers inviting customers to shop at Banana Repubic, the lesson becomes much more real and a lot more memorable.
But how can you begin to connect to your audiences? Here’s a few ways to start:
• Step outside yourself,
• … step into someone else’s shoes
• Eliminate noise, and
• Use existing models
Step outside yourself
The most important person in your life is you (until you have a kid). Don’t feel bad — it’s how we’ve survived as a species (self-preservation). But, when recognizing this as a designer, we have an insight into our motivations. We know that it’s the case for us (as designers) as well as for our audiences. Knowing this, we can craft presentations of ideas that appeal to the idea of self — and we can also develop initial ideas that extend past our sense of self.
As graduate students, your thesis idea will define your educational experience. You’ll need to create a project that more than one person (you) cares about. To do this, you’ll have to step outside yourself and make your concerns your audience’s concerns.
For instance, if you’re concerned with the lack of healthy food options in your neighborhood, perhaps more than one person might share this concern. Maybe it’s a hyper-local thing. Maybe it's a regional thing. Maybe you’ve IDed a problem in the local economy that might also apply to other similar communities as well. Your personal concerns might be shared by your neighbors, but also people who live in similar neighborhoods across the country. Therefore, your concerns become a problem that is far more universal.
Another example might center around your personal experience. As an international student, you might feel lost in San Francisco, but not everyone is going to care. However, others might also feel lost for similar reasons. Find out what they are and make them less about being an international student and more about being a tourist, perhaps… because there are a LOT of those in San Francisco. Given that tourists generate money and everyone case about money, you've just taken a personal concern and made it a LOT more broad.
… and step into someone else’s shoes
In addition to stepping outside of yourself, now try step into someone else’s shoes. What does that even mean? I wear a size-11... their size-8s won't fit! ... Figuratively, can you act and think as if you're someone else? Can you play the part? Can you imagine what it would be like to be 15 and pregnant? Homeless? Looking for a new job at 60 years old? It’s essential that you develop this sort of empathy and that you consider the POV of your potential audience from a first person, very personal perspective.
Sometimes, you can do this literally. When working on concepts for a children’s store, the designers at IDEO got on their knees to see what the store looked like from the POV of a toddler. To get the idea of a hospital experience, they strapped a camera to the project-lead’s head and filmed what he saw during his journey (a lot of ceilings, if you were wondering). Even a physical shift can be helpful. An industrial designer (and I'd imagine a soon-to-be father or mother) came up with a funny one, too.
However, sometimes you need to make a mental shift as well. This is obviously harder. To do this, you’ll need to be far more open. You’ll need to meet people either figuratively or literally. Figuratively, you’ll need to absorb and synthesize a lot of stories: history, documentaries, first-person narratives — and not just read/watch, but synthesize. Even better is to get out and meet new people. Volunteer with local organizations that put you in new places. Join clubs that allow you to interact with people of different backgrounds (but with /some/ common interests which make it a bit easier). But the first step is to take initiative.
Eliminate noise
In communication, noise is any element that transforms the message from the transmitter to the receiver into something different. It’s a distraction. There are all kinds of noise in communication and very little of it is actually audible. In stories, even simple things like names and general archetypes can be sources of noise. Do you have two characters that overlap and become confusing? Is the plot too twisty? Are there too many side adventures for the medium? You experience this all the time when watching movies that are adapted from books. The medium of a book allows for more breadth, but the 2-hour movie allows for only so much. There’s often a good bit of the story — often entire adventures — that are removed for clarity and smooth running. As a communicator, you need to do that, too. Identify what are the most important points, what elements support those points, and what bits are distracting. You'll need to edit accordingly… and use a bit of artistic license along the way.
As a designer, you’ll also have to break down complex information into digestible (and memorable) pieces. Making sure things have a structure that is understandable — as well as a structure that isn’t too complex — is also important. This is also a chance to eliminate noise. You can have noise in structure, too, which brings us to...
Use existing models
The structure of stories and how we approach them has not changed dramatically. Star Wars and the tales of King Arthur are not that different structurally… and the framework of sitcoms on network TV are continually recycled. There’s little need to rework the framework when the content is what is most important. Keeping a familiar framework is a good way to keep an audience engaged because we tend to feel more comfortable and will stick with something that’s at least a tiny bit familiar. We certainly need some fresh content within the framework — that’s where you come in. Fortunately, the content is also what you want to communicate. So, focus on the content, not the framework itself. It’s not only efficient, but it will help overall delivery.
At the end of the day, as communication designers, it’s our job to communicate a specific message to an identified audience with a intended outcome [message >> audience >> outcome]. By leveraging what we know about how communication works — and how we process information as people — the more successful we can be at doing this. If we can use methods that we know work well to do better work, we should use them. It's a simple as that.
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