This is the talk I gave at From Business to Buttons in Stockholm on April 3, 2014. Focuses on the power and value of storytelling as a tool and how Interaction Design is made up of the same components of a story when done correctly. Using this framework will lead to better designs.

3. Create among all stakeholders a
shared sense of meaning and purpose
(aka value) around the solutions within
any given set of problem spaces.

4. Before there was ever design. Before
there was the written word. At the
dawn of language itself, with tools like
fire and stone, there was story.

5. Stories have been used to engage us,
yes, but also to guide us.

6. Pain doesn’t have to be deadly … just
an annoyance.

7. Leaders, heroes, magic come to our
rescue

8. Without a sense of justice we cannot
move forward.

9. We need not struggle, to be free. The
magic for us, is the magic of design.

10. They demonstrate a new world order,
where without the magic, or its cause,
we would be irresponsible without.

11. A story by itself is not so much in the
telling.

12. How to even tell the story to different
audiences in this case.

13. The frames get re-used throughout.
With the rest of the system stories
reinforce relationships, and create a
cultural memory system.

14. The afikomen is an invention in later
versions of the the story telling ritual
that adds a game to the evening. It
creates an annual anticipation of
possible reward.
The frames get re-used throughout.
With the rest of the system stories
reinforce relationships, and create a

15. What’s wrong w/ this plate?
The orange … It has it’s own story.

17. The story is an anchor of a shared
experience that all who hear it can
share.

18. Frames create structure for memory,
and for retelling. It creates pathways
similar to landmarks.

19. It even gives us the means for framing
how we even craft the story in the first
place.
Gives us a place to start.

20. But memory in a photo is not enough.

21. We create structure so we can
remember. The question is an
invitation to create a story and once
created it lives on it’s.

22. But because stories are human (or
anthropomorphized) we connect
deeply at an emotional level when
done correctly.

23. But stories are an externalization.
Once externalized they are a mirror
that allow us to reflect.
No genre of storytelling reflects this
better than Science Fiction. Whether
the utopia of Star Trek or the distopia
of classic Japanese anime or the
billions of questions from the shortest
of short Phillip K. Dyck stories, we are

24. As noted above, great stories have
lessons for us.

25. If they don’t engage the different
intended audiences, we have failed
and so every aspect of a story’s
details needs to use the tools of
psychological engagement: humor,
fear, anticipation, suspense, climatic
resolution, exposition, etc. to hold our
attention, and create relevance.

26. So a long time ago, some famous
Greek dude, decided to espouse on
what makes a narrative. He was a
simple man though and came up with
…

27. He said, there is a definite beginning,
and since there is invariably more than
one word there is definitely an END,
but the exciting part is that he said
there is … wait for it … a MIDDLE!!!

28. Fast forward a few millennia and this
Prussian guy said this is a good start,
but is not enough to make a narrative.

29. This has hence been expanded on
further.
And for the designer, it is the last part
that closes the loop between acts of a
story, or between stories themselves
that is most important to consider:
transformation.
If there is no transformation (positive
transformation hopefully) there is no

30. This is not meant to be
comprehensive and often these have
different names such as character,
setting and plot.

31. But when you look at their structure in
this way you see a direct correlation to
what is we do as designers and why
story is such a wonderful map for
interaction design.

33. Experience can come from anywhere.
Get out. Be with people. Be with
nature. Be with industry. Be with
yourself in new places. Get your
passport stamped A LOT!
But also do research. Any and all
research is good. Research is
experience.

34. Not doubt about it. Just like
everything else we do it takes hard
work.

35. Everyone has a different voice that
they prefer for storying telling. For me
it is words. I’m not visual. I don’t like
to draw. I sorta like to take pictures. I
do like to talk and I do like to write.
For you it will be something else. But
don’t stop looking for collaborators
to compliment your weaknesses and
enhance your strengths. More than

36. Do your personas. Create the
characters. Craft them from your data
of experience gathering.

38. Ethnography is the best type of
experience gathering it. It is personal.
It combines both listening and
observation so that you get more
sensory experience than just
interviews or passive observation by
themselves.

39. Get building and do it with people.
Anyone. Everyone. Don’t have them
build to answer questions, but to drive
questions.

40. Act, play, move, perform.

42. Build, use, participate

43. Tell, visualize, share.

44. Script writing differs from just writing
a story.
It has structure and form that offers
guidance for how direct key elements
like actors and cameras through a
given part of a story (a scene).

45. A tool that helps this process even
deeper is Adobe Story. I highly
recommend people who are
interested in the language/narrative
side of design to take a look at it.

46. You can pair script writing w/
storyboarding and tools like Comic
Life take the hard part of comics out
of the way. You don’t have to think
about the framing of your work, or the
drawing of simple elements. By using
photos instead of drawing (or finding
photos online) you can build out
comics to tell a story fairly quickly.

47. This is a great example of low-fi story
telling. Easy to do. You could do this
whole thing in Keynote if you wanted
to, but tools like iMovie would do in a
pinch.
Persona and his problem scenario are
expressed w/ the market space to
begin. A strong understanding of the

48. Can your company evoke this much
emotion in a language most likely
most of your customers can’t read. Be
sure to watch w/o captions.
My goal in my career is to craft stories
like this for the organizations I work
for. I challenge you to do the same.