<aside> ⭐ Storyboards help visualize UX ideas. Visual representations of UX stories capture attention, provide clarity, and inspire us to take action.
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Storytelling plays a large role in our job as UX professionals. A story captures attention, provides clarity, and inspires teams and stakeholders to take action. There are many ways to visually communicate stories to our teams and stakeholders, UX stories, Storyboards, Customer Journey Mapping, Empathy Mapping being a few examples.
In the world of UX, we use storyboards to provide additional context to our teams and stakeholders. Using images makes the story quick to understand at first glance and easy to remember.
There are always 3 common storyboard elements, regardless of form: a specific scenario, visuals, and corresponding captions.
Not sure where to start? Here's a storyboard template (PDF version).
Storyboards are based on a scenario or a user story. The persona or role that corresponds to that scenario is clearly specified at the top of the storyboard. A short text description of the scenario is also included. The description of the scenario or story is clear enough that a team member or stakeholder could understand what is depicted before looking at the visuals. For example: Corporate buyer, James, needs to replenish office supplies.
Each step in the scenario is represented visually in a sequence. The steps can be sketches, illustrations, or photos. Depending on the purpose of the storyboard and on its audience, these images can be quick, low-fidelity drawings or elaborate, high-fidelity artifacts. Images include details relevant to the story, such as what the user’s environment looks like, speech bubbles with quotes from the user, or a sketch of the screen that the user is interacting with.
Each visual has a corresponding caption. The caption describes the user’s actions, environment, emotional state, device, and so on. Because the image is the primary content in a storyboard, captions are concise and don’t typically exceed two bullet points.
Storyboards can be used in many different ways throughout the UX process:
If your team or stakeholders are not involved in usability testing, a storyboard can convey how your participants interacted with the application or site. Summing up a usability test in text only can still be helpful, but visuals can make your story easy to skim and memorable.
Storyboards created from usability tests can include actual quotes from your user, along with images or notes of any telling body language that was exhibited.