‘Storyworthy’ –a tale of tales worth telling
I have hated the word ‘scrolly-telling’ since I first heard it. That a scrolling experience is supposed to have a narrative is (or should be) glaringly obvious to any designer, making this forced mashup of the two words woefully pretentious. It didn't help that I learned the term from a colleague who carried his role leading a design team with all the humility of a Victorian workhouse master. My questioning of his superior design knowledge was in some way comparable to the colossal mistake of the orphan child who had dared to ask for more soup. No good vibes from the word, and from anyone who sells the idea, especially if it’s a done-for-you drag-and-drop template. Neither Design Systems nor stories can be saved by templates alone —the former needs trust and collaboration, the latter needs heart. All the masterfully crafted components in the world cannot replace human connection.
The book ‘Storyworthy’ is all about the heart of the story told through the learnings from Matthew Dicks’ experience of competing and winning at the Moth slam storytelling competition. Central to the book is the poignant story ‘Charity Thief’ that has Matthew collecting money for the McDonald’s foundation under false pretences, which in a twist of tragic irony, happens to be the reality of the person he collects charity from. This tearjerker is masterfully dissected to explain the various parts of the narrative that make it so effective at stirring emotion: handy techniques like the 5 second rule, the arc of the story as a contrast between the beginning and the end, the high ‘stakes,’ the blink-and-you-will-miss-it detail in the description that paints a memorable picture for the reader (or listener in his case), are all explained to help anyone put the pieces together for a gripping story. To become a better storyteller and archiver, he suggests some practical exercises like a shorthand version of journaling which makes you notice things you would have missed were it not for the compulsion to write something interesting about the day, and forgotten had you not written it. You may be an unreliable narrator, but journaling helps you weave the past into a coherent narrative, albeit the narrative you create is one of the many possible stories you choose to tell yourself. I have been keeping a diary since I was 10, and I missed this one year where for some reason I didn’t record anything (that’s another story). Even though many firsts happened that year, I don’t have much recollection of it. One can easily make a movie out of every drab detail that I have recorded aside from that one year (... and I’d like Emily Blunt to play me, thanks!). If interested in starting this activity, I have been using and highly recommend the ‘One Line a Day’ 5-year journals. It’s fascinating to read through your past years’ entries for the same day –in my case, a stunning testament of how a person just never learns.
I found Dicks’ book to be a mesmerizing read, and due to its engaging storytelling, a very quick one too. It explains what works in storytelling to elicit an emotional response and forge a human connection. For a designer though (Product, Design Systems, UX or any other kind) this is usually not the end goal. We seek to make a connection in order to do something (the ‘so that I can ...’ part of a user story, if you will), i.e. our goal is not just to connect, but to connect in order to convince (yes you really do need another lipstick in a shade that is barely distinguishable from the one you just bought two weeks ago…) and to nudge to behave a certain way (... so add this item to cart before we run out of stock). An explanation of that end goal, which is a very important consideration for designers in defining the mood of the story is missing from Dicks’ narrative.
A distinct feature of the Moth Slam competitions is their performative nature. Any written text meant for performance hits differently when performed –take Shakespeare or religious scriptures for example. Add a whole lot of heavenly art and music to it and you can move the most cold-hearted, stubborn non-believer to tears. There are stories that are only meant to be read though, and some to be conveyed through a certain medium, which is why writing screenplays from works of fiction is such a challenge. It requires a lot of imagination and liberties with the original text, because a screenplay for a theatre demands a different structure than one for a feature film. How your audience consumes the story you are telling defines how you end up telling it. For designers, this principle is especially crucial. When pitching to C-suite executives, the narrative must be concise, data-driven, and focused on ROI. Conversely, when explaining a new interface to end-users, the story becomes more experiential, peppered with relatable scenarios and emotional touchpoints. And when collaborating with developers, the tale is rich with functional specifications and user flow diagrams. In each case, the designer must be a chameleon, adapting their storytelling style to resonate with the specific audience, ensuring their design narrative not only connects but also inspires and persuades. One could make use of Dicks’ strategies to craft each of these stories but the response you wish to elicit from your audience eventually decides the emotion and the emphasis of your storytelling.
While adapting stories for different audiences is crucial, Dicks touches on an even more subtle challenge: the danger of a single narrative. Art and literature are fraught with examples of people trying to understand the voice of the unrepresented, and by extension, the misunderstood. ‘Wide Sargasso Sea’ and ‘Letters from Iwo Jima’ and ‘Flags of our Fathers’ come to mind. The importance of understanding stories from multiple perspectives should not be new information for designers, especially with all the chest-thumping around ‘empathy’ within design circles. This is an incredibly difficult thing to do though, and one of my issues with Design Thinking is how easy the proponents of it make it seem to ‘empathize,’ usually by templatizing and therefore generalizing complexities about people and how they exist within systems. (More on that later, I promise!) This complexity of perspectives brings us to perhaps the most crucial skill in corporate design storytelling: convincing others to believe in your vision, even when it challenges theirs.
The point is that as a designer in a corporate setting, you can get buy-in for even the most adversarial ideas by knowing how to tell (and sell) your story such that it encompasses an implicit understanding of your audience’s story too. A bit of disingenuousness is not a necessary condition for success (however you choose to define it), but does come in handy, at least in my experience.
“We are all stories in the end, make sure it is a good one.” Margaret Atwood said that. Or was it Doctor Who? If I were to see things from my colleague's perspective, perhaps I’d be the insecure, aloof pedant nipping all his amazing ‘scrolly-telling’ ideas in the bud —though that might be a generous reading of my behaviour. But that’s his story to tell, on his blog –this here is how I choose to tell mine.
My favourite quote from the book:
“The unopened letter from my father, still sitting on my desk? I needed to tell that one too. It wasn’t until Elysha asked me what was in my father’s letter that it occurred to me that my ritual with his letters was odd. Something that I was unwilling to tell her about. Something that I didn’t understand. Those are the moments when I know that it’s time to tell myself a story so I can understand my behavior and solve the complex problem of my personal history. The solutions often make for great stories and provide us with opportunities to more fully understand ourselves. To make meaning out of who we are from the stories we have lived.”
Other good resources on storytelling for designers & others:
Good Charts by Scott Berinato - This is one of my favourite books on storytelling through design, although I still have not read this cover to cover. Practical, substantive and loaded with excellent examples. Also has a workbook for practice.
This is Service Design Doing by Marc Stickdorn & others - pages 48-49 of the book explain dramatic arcs and how to use them to create service design blueprints. A good example of connecting the abstract with the concrete.
Storyteller Tactics Pip Decks - My only gripe with ‘Storyworthy’ is that it does not convincingly answer why you need to tell a story in the first place —these cards start with the why.
Design is Storytelling by Ellen Lupton - This might be a good book to expand your knowledge beyond the craft of design. I think it might be a bit too basic for designers who have moved away from foundational Graphic Design into more complex applications of design.
Earnest Hemingway wrote a 6 word story: “For sale: baby shoes. Never worn.” And then he wrote some more.
Regarding unreliable narrators, Apple TV's ‘Disclaimer’ offers an intriguing exploration of the theme —though fair warning: it's NSFW and occasionally states the obvious with all the subtlety of a hammer.
John Cleese on Creativity in Management - Masterclass in storytelling. ‘nuff said.
