at workTIPS, TOOLS & INTELLIGENCE

FOR DEVELOPING TALENT

TECHNOLOGY APPLICATION

Storyboarding: The Power of Planning

Martha Stott

JULY 2020 ISSUE 2007

The Basics ................................................................................................................. 2

Preparation ............................................................................................................... 4

Creating a Storyboard ......................................................................................... 6

Tips .............................................................................................................................. 8

Conclusion ............................................................................................................. 10

References & Resources ....................................................................................12

JOB AID

Storyboard Preparation Questionnaire......................................................13

Simple Storyboard Template ..........................................................................15

TD at Work (ISSN 2373-5570, Electronic ISSN 2373-5589, ISBN 978-1-95215-7-905, Electronic eISBN 978-1-95215-7-004) is published monthly by the Association for Talent Development, 1640 King Street, Alexandria, VA 22314. TD at Work is available for subscription in print or digitally. The subscription rate for the Monthly All-Access (12 print and digital issues, plus archive access) is $119 (ATD national members) and $159 (nonmembers). The monthly digital subscription rate for 12 issues is $69 (ATD national members) and $99 (nonmembers). Periodicals postage paid at Alexandria, Virginia, and additional entries. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to TD at Work, 1640 King Street Alexandria, VA 22314. Claims for replacement of subscription issues not received must be made within three months of the issue date. Copyright © July 2020 TD at Work and ATD. All rights reserved. No part of this work covered by the copyright hereon may be reproduced or used in any form or by any means—graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping, or information storage and retrieval systems—without the express written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, please go to copyright.com, or contact Copyright Clearance Center (CCC), 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923 (telephone: 978.750.8500, fax: 978.646.8600). ATD Press grants permission for the material on pages 13-16 to be reproduced for personal use.

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VOL. 37 • ISSUE 2007 • JULY 2020

STORYBOARDING: THE POWER OF PLANNING

technology application

COPYRIGHT © ATD 1Storyboarding: The Power of Planning |

AUTHORS

Martha StottMartha Stott, CPTD, has

more than 15 years of experience in L&D, including

roles in instructional design and learning program

management. Previously, she was a daily newspaper

writer and editor.

Content Manager, Technology Application

Alexandria Clapp

Editor, TD at WorkPatty Gaul

Managing EditorJoy Metcalf

Senior Graphic Designer

Shirley E.M. Raybuck

The first storyboard—a tool to organize your thinking as you develop a story—is credited to Disney animator Webb Smith, who pinned

a series of sketches to a bulletin board in the 1930s. “Walt Disney believed that story development was one of the most important parts of producing an animated film,” writes Alyssa Carnahan, open studio coordinator for the Walt Disney Family Museum, in a 2013 museum blog post.

That sounds like a fun fact, but what purpose do story boards

have for talent development professionals, and why should

you care?

Just like animated filmmakers, instructional designers and

facilitators are storytellers. They use stories to help learners

understand the what’s in it for me, make an emotional connec-

tion, and help the learning stick. Every talent development profes-

sional who is developing a visual learning product—such as a video

tutorial, short animation or motion graphic, interactive media

COPYRIGHT © ATD2 | Storyboarding: The Power of Planning

sequence, e-learning module, or virtual reality learning

event—needs to know how to create a storyboard.

In this issue of TD at Work, I will explain:

• what a storyboard is and the benefits to using one

• considerations before beginning the storyboarding

process

• a step-by-step process for developing a storyboard

• tips for being successful.

Throughout this issue, I will also offer suggestions and

guidance from storyboarding pros.

The Basics

Storyboards help you organize your learning project

and catch mistakes before sinking time into an ani-

mated production. Joanna Cyprys, video producer

and media manager at 8x8, explains that “storyboard-

ing is a frame-by-frame illustration and description of

action.” 8x8 is a global high-tech unified communica-

tions company headquartered in San Jose, California.

The visual organization of such action divided into

individual blocks or chunks is known as the story-

board, while the act of creating the storyboard is

known as storyboarding.

A storyboard is similar to but different from a

wireframe. The primary difference is in the story. A

wireframe illustrates interactive elements on a web-

page or within a software program and is a crucial

step of designing the user interface. It is how devel-

opers describe how a user will interact with a web-

page or navigate a software application. Its purpose

of a wireframe is to ensure that the design, structure,

and labels (or terms) meet user expectations. A typical

wireframe will show graphic mock-ups of page ele-

ments, with words describing how the user will inter-

act with those elements.

Why StoryboardingStoryboarding is part of the pre-production process

of creating visual learning. “It’s where we iron out the

whole flow,” says Alexander Lin, an educational video-

grapher for 8x8 and former associate creative direc-

tor for an outside agency. Storyboards enable you

to organize concepts relative to the learning project

and easily move ideas around as the thought process

dictates, thereby potentially saving an organization a

great deal of time and money.

By chunking the information into individual blocks and

displaying the blocks in sequence, you can easily see how

the images, concepts, and ideas flow and fit together to

create the whole. And that makes it simpler and faster to

share ideas and make changes. Consider how such a pro-

cess can help collaborators work together:

Terms to Know

Animatics: the process of laying out a storyboard on a digital timeline Assets: artistic elements such as logos, character designs, props, live action files, fonts, scripts, and sound effects that will compose your fin-ished productCel animation: 2D animation drawn by hand—sometimes aided by computer graphics software—on transparent sheets called cels, which are placed over a background and photographed in sequence to create the illusion of movementCreative brief: defines the project type (such as a how-to video, e-learning course, concept animation), target audience, run time, objective, and deadlineNarration or voice-over narration: spoken words that address the listener directly, which may be added as visual images captured onscreenStop motion animation: animation that is cap-tured with a camera, with one frame shot at a time, with physical objects moved incrementally between framesThumbnailing: creating rough sketches—such as stick figures—for a simple storyboard, with space to add dialogue or action notes under each frameUser interface design: the process of designing how a user will interface with a digital product, based on the product’s look and feel, presentation, and interactivityVector graphics: computer graphics defined in terms of 2D points, connected by lines and curves, that can easily be scaled

COPYRIGHT © ATD 3Storyboarding: The Power of Planning |

• Co-creators can brainstorm ideas.

• Stakeholders can review and respond with approval

or change requests.

• Designers can rearrange, add to, or delete elements

from the project.

“Storyboarding gives you the ability to catch mistakes,

before the heavy lifting of design,” says Liz Blazer, author

of Animated Storytelling. Using a storyboard avoids the

pitfall of making decisions without thinking through the

consequences. That type of rapid, improvised develop-

ment can lead to rework and wasted production time.

When done well, storyboarding reduces the time design-

ers spend in production and builds confidence in the

creative choices that are made with the intent of direct-

ing the attention and the emotion of the audience.

What Storyboarding Looks Like Not every project needs a complicated storyboard.

Explainer videos, tutorials, and microlearning products

may be short and sweet. For rapid video tutorials, the 8x8

media team, for example, usually develops an outline and

then an audio script before capturing onscreen video. The

script shows how the video will cover the main points, use

cases, and product features.

Designers on Cyprys’s team often use a simple two-

column storyboard—one column for audio notes and one

for visual notes—in a Google Doc to rapidly develop videos

explaining 8x8’s products (see the storyboard template

job aid at the end of this issue for a simple storyboard

template). This type of project does not require a compli-

cated storyboard, especially if the team is experienced or

has developed a style guide to lay out creative choices and

treatment styles. The goal is to create an engaging script

that accurately reflects what the user will experience nav-

igating through the software program.

Although the team may include screenshots of key

navigation points in the storyboard for context, its focus is

on first developing the script before capturing the screen-

cast or video components. The two-column format pro-

vides space for reference images and descriptions of

the action, which give visual milestones to the script-

writers. As needed, the team can add extra details on

camera angles, close-ups, highlights, or areas of focus

for video capture. If desired, once approved and in final

revised format, the team can send the script to an out-

side vendor to produce the voice-over narration that

will be incorporated in the final video.

While for some projects the storyboard is simple,

others may benefit from a comprehensive version, and

there are almost as many templates as there are designers.

Artists may sketch out a storyboard using pencil on paper

sketches, comprehensive color studies, paintings, art, or

2D images. Storyboarding templates also may include

space to describe lighting techniques, camera position,

and transitions from words and images.

Learning GoalsWhether complex or simple, a storyboard should give

clear information about exactly what is happening,

scene by scene. You can use this technique at a macro-

level to prototype a learner’s journey using human-

centered design thinking or at a microlevel to design

learning projects that meet concrete objectives. While

similar in practice, the perspectives and goals are dif-

ferent. Design thinking will focus on the actions and

decision points a learner makes across time. The goal

is to identify ways to improve the learner’s experience—

for example, from when the learner is assigned a manda-

tory e-learning training course to the time he completes

the course.

In contrast, storyboards created as part of the learning

design process will focus on learning content and perfor-

mance goals, usually for a single project: What should the

learner know or do differently as a result of completing

the course you are designing?

This individual project level is where most instruc-

tional designers operate when using storyboards,

whether they are designing e-learning, explainer videos,

Storyboards help you organize your learning project and catch mistakes before sinking time into an animated production.

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