{"id":5538,"date":"2015-05-20T08:30:29","date_gmt":"2015-05-20T15:30:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fwdlabs.com\/blog\/?p=5538"},"modified":"2015-08-03T16:47:00","modified_gmt":"2015-08-03T23:47:00","slug":"design-in-mind-5-steps-for-telling-a-design-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fwdlabs.com\/blog\/design-in-mind-5-steps-for-telling-a-design-story\/","title":{"rendered":"Design in Mind: 5 Steps for Telling A Design Story"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"design-fail\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Over the last three years, I’ve worked with a number of designers<\/strong> who have great ideas, but struggle to get colleagues or potential backers to see the power of their vision. \u00c2\u00a0So if you’re a designer, how do you talk about your work<\/strong> effectively without\u00c2\u00a0falling back on blueprints or drawings?<\/p>\n

The answer, not surprisingly, is pretty straightforward: tell a story<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

To help you share compelling design stories, here are “5 Steps for Telling a Design Story<\/strong>.”\u00c2\u00a0Follow these guidelines and you’ll have yet another tool<\/strong> for amazing potential clients or fellow designers.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Start with Your Values<\/strong>\n

    As designers know, good design starts with values, or core principles<\/strong>. \u00c2\u00a0The first step to articulating your values is to answer the question: What is the experience you want your end user to have of the product? \u00c2\u00a0Are you trying to achieve efficiency of space or economy of motion? \u00c2\u00a0Is the goal to save time or increase the number of clicks on a particular page? \u00c2\u00a0Start with a big idea<\/strong> (i.e. efficiency) and then break it down into its component parts<\/strong> (look, feel, etc). \u00c2\u00a0The clearer you are in answering these questions, the clearer you’ll be in articulating the overall journey, or experience<\/strong>, you’d like a potential reader, listener or user to have of your design.<\/li>\n

  2. Identify a Moment of Vulnerability<\/strong>\n

    Since there are no shortage of vulnerabilities in the design world, this part is pretty easy. \u00c2\u00a0The challenge here is to try to find a moment where the failure hit a nerve on a personal level<\/em>.<\/strong> \u00c2\u00a0To do this, identify a moment or experience in which the value you want your design to demonstrate (i.e. efficiency) was absent, and the impact that absence had on you. \u00c2\u00a0For example, if the experience you want people to have is about spatial layout, think about a time when you were jammed against a wall and couldn’t escape, or a time you created a space that had that same effect on someone.<\/p>\n

    Once you pinpoint the moment, take time to highlight each of the design failings<\/strong> (be specific!), how you reacted<\/strong> (be honest!), and any feelings you experienced<\/strong>, either in the moment or afterwards (make it personal!).<\/li>\n

  3. Demonstrate a Shift<\/strong>\n

    After you’ve clearly identified a moment of\u00c2\u00a0vulnerability, outline how you responded. \u00c2\u00a0What did you do? Did you have any conversations\u00c2\u00a0about this design failing? Again, be specific about these conversations and actions. \u00c2\u00a0For example, after seeing a cabinet that was placed improperly, did you research and discover any trends in cabinet design? \u00c2\u00a0Did you share your experiences with your team? \u00c2\u00a0These moments and conversations will provide context for your listeners about both your solution<\/strong> and the design process<\/strong>. \u00c2\u00a0Many designers gloss over important details out of fear of bogging the audience down, but a detailed description<\/strong> of your response will actually draw people in by making design\u00c2\u00a0comprehensible. \u00c2\u00a0Again, be specific!<\/li>\n

  4. Present Your Solution<\/strong>\n

    After you’ve created context for both the design vulnerability and outlined your response, walk the audience through your\u00c2\u00a0<\/strong>solution. \u00c2\u00a0This doesn’t need to be a complex breakdown of the idea (unless you’re speaking to fellow designers who want to hear it), but it does need to address the vulnerability<\/strong> identified in section 2 and the shift<\/strong> in part 3. \u00c2\u00a0Describe how the solution speaks <\/strong>to\u00c2\u00a0the initial problem and realizes\u00c2\u00a0the design value laid out in part 1.<\/li>\n

  5. End with a Call to Action<\/strong>\n

    The final part of a good design story is to end with a compelling call to action. Your call to action should articulate what’s\u00c2\u00a0possible<\/strong> in this new, well-designed world. \u00c2\u00a0If you’ve already implemented your design solution, tell people what happened afterwards. \u00c2\u00a0Did the industry embrace your ideas? \u00c2\u00a0Did anyone offer praise or feedback? \u00c2\u00a0What became possible for users and designers in this new world? \u00c2\u00a0Did your solution provide secondary benefits <\/strong>that you didn’t initially anticipate?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    If you haven’t implemented the solution yet, get people excited<\/strong> about the future (no more ATM’s in the sky!), and you’ll be amazed at the response.<\/p>\n

    How’s that for a design hack<\/strong>?<\/p>\n

    Over the last three years, I’ve worked with a number of designers who have great ideas, but struggle to get colleagues or potential backers to see the power of their vision. \u00c2\u00a0So if you’re a designer, how do you talk about your work effectively without\u00c2\u00a0falling back on blueprints or drawings? The answer, not surprisingly, is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5538","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-design","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fwdlabs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5538","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fwdlabs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fwdlabs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fwdlabs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/31"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fwdlabs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5538"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/fwdlabs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5538\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fwdlabs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fwdlabs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fwdlabs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}

    (Originally published at The Story Source<\/a>.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"