The Design of a Story: The Story of a Design

Contemporary Design Culture: Week 4

Storytelling is something that is woven deep into Irish culture, this is likely due to the Irish oral tradition of passing down stories through spoken word. Storytelling mightn’t seem like it has any place in design but this weeks workshop set out to challenge this assumption, “If design is about communication, then we are all storytellers.”

Storytelling is possibly the best way to gain insight from someone who isn’t in the industry. A person is more likely to share useful information if the tone is conversational and centres around and various stories and accompanying tangents. Through storytelling a designer can make a user feel more at ease, therefore making it easier for them to share personal details that can majorly benefit a project. Storytelling engages people, it’s personal and memorable. It can motivate, inspire and even persuade people to another way of thinking. The power of storytelling, if utilised correctly, can be crucial in selling an idea to a group of likeminded individuals or indeed sceptics.

What makes products special is when we attach stories to them. A pessimist might call us materialistic but in actuality I believe we are sentimental. By taking an everyday product and breathing life into it, in essence assigning it a personality, we create an entire story arc for the product. As consumers, when we combine product and humanity together we create a story. We humanise even the most clinical cold objects, due to the way we project emotions and experiences onto inanimate objects. By weaving stories into the design process we can make the user experience even more meaningful for users. For example we were shown an image of a plain plastic chair, in no way visibly special or different to any other office or classroom chair. It was only when we were told the chair’s story did a connection form between us, the users, and the chair, the product. The chair, in question, was made from recycled ocean waste (fishing nets) I, personally, care deeply about environmental matters and conservation of our planet so it appeared to me as if this chair, through its backstory, cared the same way I did.

Using various story-building exercises we practiced creating a story from prompts. I found the story cubes particularly engaging. Hearing someone build an entire world from nine symbols became even more captivating with each roll of the dice. Being able to construct a story from simple symbols and have it engage an audience is something I am happy I could successfully do. I feel that, going forward, I will appreciate the art of storytelling more in my design process. As a designer it’s important to allow a user to put their own stamp on a product and a user is going to apply this regardless. However a product’s individual pre-story only adds to a product’s unique place in all of our lives. I am thankful stories exist in our world because without them sentimentality is just materialism a chair is just a chair.