A storyboard is a series of pictures – similar to a comic strip – that illustrate a brief story of a person using a product or solution to complete a task in a real context. A storyboard is helpful for showing the future user experience of a solution that you've designed.
EXAMPLE
Here is a storyboard of a person walking by a bulletin board in a hallway, who pauses to use his phone's camera to scan a code on an announcement, in order to download the information to the phone.
As you can see, a storyboard can use simple drawings and still be very effective at showing what happens. Each panel also includes a brief description to help clarify what is being shown.
Your team will create a 6-panel storyboard to tell a brief story of what happens before, during, and after a person uses your solution (the smart device, the web app, or both) to complete a specific task:
BEFORE = 2 panels for problem (show setting of story and what task the person needs to complete)
DURING = 3 panels for solution (show the person using your solution to complete the task)
AFTER = 1 for panel for benefit (show how the person feels after using solution)
The task that you select for this storyboard should be core to the purpose and experience of using your smart device system. Therefore, do NOT select a mundane task such as: creating an account, logging into the app, etc.
TYPES OF CAMERA SHOTS
A storyboard can be more effective if the panels use different camera shots depending on what each panel is trying to communicate, similar to how movies use different camera shots to help tell a story. Some common types of camera shots that are useful in product storyboards are shown below.
NOTE: Your storyboard won’t necessarily use all these camera shots, and your storyboard won’t necessarily use them in this exact order. Select and order your camera shots to tell your story in the most effective way possible.
Wide shots and long shots are useful for showing when and where the story takes place and who is involved. They are often used for the first panel of a storyboard.
Medium shots are useful for showing the person’s emotion. They are often used to show a person’s reaction to a problem and/or their reaction to using the product.
Over shoulder shots, point of view shots, and close-up shots are useful for showing what the person is doing and seeing as they use the product to complete the task.
YOUR TASK
Use this planning document to help develop the storyline for your 6-panel storyboard.
Print and use this storyboard template to sketch your storyboard panels. Be sure to include a brief description for each panel to help explain what it shows.
