Class 9 – Why Do Stories Matter?
This week’s class :
- Review and discuss Design Fiction clips:
- Mini-lecture on Storytelling:
- Aristotle’s Poetics | Storytelling framework
- Dramatic structure
- Hero’s Journey mythic structure
- Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics
- Matt Madden’s 99 Ways to Tell a Story | Story iteration with flash fiction
- Poll on our remaining two classes
This week’s class activity about “Why do stories matter?”
- Discuss what made your selected design fiction clip an effective (or not) piece of storytelling and what you would do differently
- Rapidly iterate and act out a story by telling the same story three different ways
Final assignment:
You will work in small teams of 2-4. Together you will create a work of design fiction. This means creating a persuasive narrative that envisions and brings a potential design experience to life in a way that the general public can understand.
You will be evaluated on the quality of your narrative:
1. If it is a compelling:
- Draws you into the characters
- Establishes a time/setting
- Evokes emotion
- Vividly paints a scenario
- Clearly communicates your vision
2. Suggests an outcome/impact
3. If it appropriate for a non-technical audience (general public)
Additional Resources and Inspiration:
Donna Lichaw How Story Works (excerpt from The User’s Journey) – Storytelling using Back to the Future as an example
Open Culture’s How to Tell a Good Story
Futurist Jamais Cascaio’s site Open the Future
TV show The Expanse
Haruko Tsutsui for Panasonic’s Life is Electric
A Classic (1945): Vannevar Bush imagines the future of information in As We May Think
and…So you want to know about VR, AR and MR?
Kharis O’Connell Designing for Mixed Reality – Blending Data, AR, and the Physical World (free ebook from O’Reilly)
Ryan Betts Practical VR A Cheat Sheet