Design as storytelling

Abstract

Technical problem solving as a model for instructional design (ID) has its strengths, and it has done much to provide designers strategies for their work, but it has substantial limitations as well. For one, it does not do a good job in describing how designers actually think. Slavish adherence to its methods can also be considered responsible for the proliferation of designs regarded by many as boring, and therefore ultimately ineffective (Allen, 2003). In this article, the author proposes a modification to the problem-solving model to include storytelling as an explicit part of design. Storytelling might better represent how productive designers think, reconciling the apparent opposites of analysis and synthesis, and also allow more fruitful application of empathy in design. In the end, because it is a representation the ultimate goal of design--the user experience, the design story may be one of the most critical interim products of the design process. (Contains 1 table.)