Storyboarding

Storyboarding is a creative way to visually transform your idea from a thought into action.

It’s a visual planning tool that involves creating a sequence of drawings or images to pre-visualize a story, concept, or process. Each panel drawing represents a specific scene or moment, often accompanied by notes or dialogue.

It’s a great first step to model your idea for your team, customers, and/or stakeholders before creating a prototype to test.

Best Practices

Have a clear objective. Be sure you know your audience or customers and understand what the purpose is of your new idea or process.

Keep it simple. You don’t have to be an artist to create your story! Use basic shapes and sketches to get your idea across.

Get feedback early and often. Share your rough sketches with customers and stakeholders so you have time to adjust before creating a prototype or final product.

Basic Steps

1. Identify an idea or concept to develop. Understand what story, process, or concept you’re illustrating.

2. Create a poster. Draw 10–12 blank rectangles.

3. Assemble and equip your team. Your team should be a diverse group of individuals with varying experiences to help broaden ideas. Provide basic drawing materials (e.g., colored pencils, pens).

4. Map out the main storyline. Identify the key scenes or main steps in the sequence from the beginning, middle, and end.

5. Draw! Have your team sketch out the key scenes. Stick figures and basic shapes are fine. Include a descriptive phrase or narrative under each frame.

6. Review and revise. Check the storyboard for clarity, pacing, and completeness.

Benefits

• Shows what a concept looks like in action
• Helps people imagine the future and see the potential of the vision
• Builds a shared understanding amongst teams
• Facilities creative input from teams, customers, and stakeholders