Using the example of a persona who likes to share photos, we can explore how storyboards help visualize the journey.

Problem: Tom wants a simple way to quickly share his hiking getaways with friends and family and he want them to be able to respond individually to each photo—currently that is not possible.

The problem statement describes Instagram, but it doesn’t show how the features of sharing and receiving instant feedback could affect the Tom’s life.

Personas:

Personas inform us about the audience

Wireframes:

Wireframes show the layout of the UX

WireFlows:

Wireflows show wireframe behavior

Storyboards:

Storyboards help us see the persona’s experience with the designed wireframe using the wireflow’s behavior.  Storyboards open a glimpse into the persona’s life within their environment, using the application or device designed for them.

Verbal sharing

Tom is an avid outdoorsman; during his trips, days or weeks might elapse, and details might get lost, but he loves to share his story which helps unfold the experience. Since Tom’s parents have never been able to join him on the trips, he often brings home the photos and shares the stories verbally.

Visual sharing

Instead of waiting weeks, Tom could share the images as soon as he captured and recorded the thoughts that went with them at the moment.

This behavior of story-telling is similar to earlier times when communities would gather around to view slideshows of each other’s vacations. In immediate sharing, Tom’s community gets to see what he’s doing almost as soon as he does it, and they are enabled to correspond with him.

Sharing immediacy

So, when he crawls out of his tent, as the sun brushes the mountain tops, he thinks, “I need to share this!“—he can.

Instant community

Tom posts the image, and his family, friends, and followers have instant insight into what made this moment special.

Instant access

Tom is notified that people are seeing and are, in some ways, with him in his adventure. Tom’s story is a UX story.

UX done well tells a story about the user, their environment, their needs, and their interactions, and day-to-day micro-interactions. Storyboards give us a visual glimpse into their world.

Crafting a user’s UX story does take time and planning, but used correctly, they can help steer the requirements for upcoming jobs. Storyboards can help define the scope of the application/device’s whys and hows and can help build scenarios for user testing.

As one more way to understand an experience, storyboards allow us to get a sense of the emotion, the thrill, and the satisfaction that UX can bring to the user and their community.

UX Storyboarding For Personas