Crafting user experiences by incorporating dramaturgical techniques of storytelling

Design is changing into an experience-oriented discipline and therefore designers need appropriate tools and methods to incorporate experiential aspects into their designs. We argue that the creative skills required of designers are starting to overlap with those required of professional storytellers. Understanding the structural strategies behind storytelling and learning how to incorporate them into a design process is becoming increasingly relevant for designers when they want to envision, discuss and influence user experiences. We have specifically investigated dramaturgical techniques from film and sequential art (also known as comics) in order to establish how they can inspire existing conceptual design methods such as brainstorming, scenarios, personas and storyboarding. The specific tool entitled "Storify" that we present at the end of this paper is a concrete proposal for how to support designers in their creative efforts when crafting and communicating stories about envisioned experiences.