Storyboard
What is a Storyboard?
A storyboard is a visual planning tool that outlines the sequence of events in a narrative through a series of illustrations, images, or sketches, often accompanied by notes or dialogue. Used in film, animation, marketing, and UX design, storyboards help visualize concepts, structure ideas, and guide the production process. This tool streamlines storytelling by mapping out key scenes, transitions, and actions before their final execution.1
The Basic Idea
As a child, were you eager to snag the Sunday paper with the comic section? Did you ever collect comic books or make sketches of your own? Maybe you still do. It’s amazing how such complex ideas can be conveyed through such simple illustrations. You might have also looked forward to the Saturday morning cartoons, bouncing out of bed with more far more energy than on a school morning, eager to watch the latest shenanigans of Tom and Jerry. Did you ever wonder what goes on behind the scenes of creating those lively animations? Many movies and shows use storyboards, which can resemble comic strips, to convey key aspects of the plot and important details of the production process like dialogue, camera angles, and transitions.
Although storyboards are a key part of film planning, the tool can also be incredibly useful in the business world to convey other “stories,” like the user experience. The visually engaging format of a storyboard can help explain more complex ideas and keep people engaged with the project.1 Especially in a pitch for a marketing video or project launch, a storyboard can be a fantastic tool to reel in those who are eager to collaborate and be inspired by a product as big as the big screen itself.
Consider the introduction of yet another app designed to streamline grocery delivery. A storyboard for this proposed app would visually map out the user's journey from identifying their need for groceries to the end of their experience with the app, satisfied with a successful grocery delivery.
The storyboard might start with a frame showing a busy professional realizing they’re out of groceries, leading into a scene where they open the app and navigate the home page. Next, a frame might depict their selection of items, followed by a simple checkout process. Further frames could highlight real-time tracking of the order and culminate in a happy delivery moment where the hungry person receives their groceries at their doorstep. Ideally, each of these frames strips away unnecessary complexity, focusing only on key touchpoints—no extraneous technical details or jargon, just the emotional beats of the experience, making it easier to identify potential friction points. Unlike spreadsheets of data or long documents of written explanations, a storyboard instantly conveys the emotional highs and lows by translating abstract user experience concepts into a more coherent visual sequence.
“Storyboarding is what I call an ‘idea landscape’—one that can help unleash creativity, improve communication, and identify practical solutions to complex problems. The beauty of storyboarding is that ideas from an entire team are harnessed, not just those from the extroverts or vocal members.”
— Bill Capodagli, international keynote speaker on the cultures of Disney and Pixar
About the Author
Annika Steele
Annika completed her Masters at the London School of Economics in an interdisciplinary program combining behavioral science, behavioral economics, social psychology, and sustainability. Professionally, she’s applied data-driven insights in project management, consulting, data analytics, and policy proposal. Passionate about the power of psychology to influence an array of social systems, her research has looked at reproductive health, animal welfare, and perfectionism in female distance runners.
