In my previous article, I talk about what storytelling for design and innovation is, and why it works. Let’s look at examples of how people concretely use storytelling throughout the design process.
Although there are many models for the design cycle, I personally like the UK Design Council’s Double Diamond of Design.
Image Source: DesignCouncil.org.uk
The thinking is that in the first diamond, you open your thinking to discover the different dimensions of a problem, the narrow it down to an addressable design challenge, usually in the form of “how might we?”
You then re-open your thinking to ideate and develop potential solutions for the problem before narrowing it back down to a deliverable solution. If you’re a business program or initiative manager, you can also use this structure.
At a high level, designers try to bring informative stories INTO the discovery part of the design process, and inspirational stories OUT of the solution process to spark ideation, innovation and later on, adoption.
Let’s look at some examples how designers do this.
David.p.Kohler 