Storyboard

In this article, we will explore how to combine sketching and comics to create a narrative approach that allows you to test workflows and gather feedback early and iteratively.

Why Sketching and Comics for UX?

Often, UX ideas stem from intuitions and hypotheses that need to be validated before investing valuable time and resources in their realisation. Sketching and comics offer a powerful combination of:

• Visualise the flow of a potential scenario: Storyboards and comics allow you to create a visual narrative that engages users and allows them to immerse themselves in the path they must follow. This approach helps to identify potential usability problems and gather feedback on user expectations and needs.

• Get a broader picture: Comics are not limited to showing interface screens but also include people, their thoughts, emotions, and actions. This allows you to assess the design's emotional and cognitive impact on the user and identify potential points of friction or confusion.

• Put the user at the centre: The narrative nature of comics allows you to create an immersive experience that puts the user at the centre of the design process. This approach helps better understand the context in which users will use the product and identify their needs and expectations more accurately.

How to use Sketching and Comics for UX:

• Understand and analyse: Before you start drawing, it is essential to conduct thorough research to understand user needs and the context in which they will use the product. This can be done through interviews, surveys, usability tests, and other UX research techniques.

• Write and draw: Once you understand user needs, you can create a storyboard for the comic. The storyboard should include the critical points of the user workflow, interactions with the product, and the user's emotions and thoughts at each stage. Next, you can create quick sketches to visualise the scenes of the comic.

• Draw the comic: You can create the final comic once the sketches are approved. It is optional to be a professional artist to create compelling UX comics. The important thing is that the comic is concise and effectively communicates the story.

• Supporting the story: To bring the comic to life and gather more concrete feedback, you can develop Proof of Concepts (PoC). PoCs are interactive prototypes that allow users to experience the workflow more realistically and provide more detailed feedback.

Benefits of this approach:

• Clear and concise communication: Sketching and comics allow you to communicate complex ideas simply and intuitively, making them easy for users and stakeholders to understand.

• Early and interactive feedback: Sketching and comics in the ideation phase allow you to gather feedback from users early and iteratively, allowing you to improve product design incrementally and avoid costly changes in later stages of the project.

• More engaging user experiences: Comics, thanks to their narrative nature, allow you to create more engaging and memorable user experiences, increasing the likelihood that users will adopt the product.

Combining sketching and comics for UX is a practical and versatile approach to bringing ideas to life, testing workflows, and gathering feedback early and iteratively. This method helps to create more user-friendly and successful user experiences, increasing user satisfaction and product ROI.