Story-Boards

A storyboard can be seen as a combination of scenarios and mock-ups. Simply put, this is a series of drawings showing how a certain example of a use situation takes place in the mock-up. To create an increased engagement and commitment it is important that the readers can identify themselves with the situation being described. Thus, it is important to use people who thinks, acts, feels and perhaps talks (Löwgren and Stolterman 2004). Storyboards provide a common visual language that support people from different background to communicate on aspects of design (van der Lelie 2006). Storyboards can be used in several phases of the development process. In the analyis phase, the focus is to get a grip of the function or intended behaviour of the new product widest sense. Here the storyboards encourage designers to consider situations, atmospheres, feelings, interactions and contexts in relation to the systems intended use (van der Lelie 2006). In the synthesis phase, storyboards can be used to explore and integrate concept ideas and to get a feel for the product user interaction in context and over time. Simulation phase can be the next phase in which storyboards can be used to develop ideas and concepts into an image about the behaviour, interaction, and properties of the product which leads up to a working model ending up into coherent narratives. Finally, storyboards can be used in the phase of evaluation to help used reflect not only on the form of the product, but also on the values and qualities it has. Now, the storyline is complete, suitable to evoke judgement (van der Lelie 2006).

Another way to think about story-board is to create visual narratives. This means to create a story, based on user expressions and the system being designed, that reveals how the future system will be used when it is implemented in its context. The visual narrative can be expressed as a series strip, but it can also be a short film showing the future use situation. Visual narratives are especially useful in situations where rich user data has been collected.