can you tell a story?

Our polytechnic is preparing for the BIG event: NP50 Anniversary - 50 LONG years of nurturing students! Some of our colleagues and students are really busy these days as they are seeding ideas for NP50.

I am not idling either though I am not involved in any of the committees - only in thought that is. I have been wondering: What if you were tasked to produce an NP50 book to commemorate the event, what should you include in the book? What is your approach? Should you tell a story or you would present the facts?

MusicBox@Seventy3 of Ngee Ann Polytechnic.
Retrieved 28 October 2012 from http://www.np.edu.sg/ideawerkz/events/Pages/events_2012_np50seedingideas.aspx.

Form follows function. Design follows concept. That is the basic rule we all know. This is also where we may miss the mark, sometimes for a simple reason that because we want to please the clients.

Please not, as there are other stakeholders in the project to consider too. One of them is the audience or users of the artefact, and very often there are different types.

When you please one group, you will miss the other groups. I have illustrated this point in my posts and articles, design from persona, designing the interactivity, and designing interactivity: who are the users and what are the techniques.

Design follows concept! This rule cannot be underestimated. I will briefly explain what I mean below.

I taught a module called Multimedia Interface Design many years ago, and I would always start my first lesson with a topic called "A quick look at good and bad multimedia interface design." This lesson was introduced to impart the skill for recognising a good interface design from an undesirable one.

In that lesson, I would show the class some screen captures of the company's homepage and then I would invite students to discuss by asking them:

• Do you see the difference in these two designs?
• Which one would make a good or bad design? 
• And good or bad in relation to what?

Table 1 shows the focal point of the discussion, namely centred on the navigational links and flow, and candidly captures the essence of that lesson.

TABLE 1: The navigational links and flow of two websites.

We may conjecture that Company A could have been an established and large organisation who needs to keep their stakeholders informed of their financial status.

On the other hand, Company B is probably a small and a new kid in town who would rather present their portfolio first to captivate the audience's attention, followed by showing the services it offers, and lastly introducing the company to establish its credential.

The approach adopted by the former design is obviously client-focus or product-centric whereas the latter, user-centric - one focuses on self and the other orients itself to the users.

Design follows concept! The navigational links and flow as well as the visual design of the homepage will simply follow the concept you've conceptualised.

Similarly, NP50 Book could be designed from the perspective of the client or user, or from the stakeholders' point of views.

Therefore, when you were tasked to design the NP50 book, and you kick off by thinking of using a travel guide metaphor as a representation form for the NP50 Book, and segment the chapters into areas of "visit" such as History, Achievements, School Information, Things to do, Food, etc., you are likely adopting a product-centric approach. Since it is based on a guide book metaphor instead of travel journal, the book will more likely present factual information than share experience through storytelling.

On the other hand, when you are proposing to capture the spirit of the people in the institution, feature them on the central stage, and segment the book into chapters of staff, students and alumni, continuing education for adult learners, overseas connection, childcare centre for children and programs for grandparents, etc., you are moving towards user-centric and possibly away from presenting the facts.

When you begin your design journey with the search for something to say and craft the theme to focus on the defining moments, moments in our lives that define who we are, and decide to use storytelling approach to describe the events, it looks more of a storytelling book spoken from the human point of views and hence may increase the emotional attachment.

Have we considered all stakeholders' point of view? Have we looked at the different types of users, their needs, wants and desires? Do we have a strong concept to start off with which is clearly aligning with the goals and behaviours of the audience/users we have identified? That is what I am trying to say here.

Producing a book is like producing a movie - it should touch on the human heart and connect them emotionally, for happiness or sadness.

If we were to present factual information to the readers, the human touch will be missing. It is like reading a report rather than a fiction book, everything is objective but boring.

Designers of Ads know it well - they don't simply present the features and functionalities to attract the buyers, they connect them at the emotional level. In the case of Apple, they sell dreams and life styles. 

If NP50 Book is pitched as a story book, it should entertain the readers. A report presents facts and organised its content by topic. On the other hand, a story organises its content by scenes to create the dramatic events.

Get to know your users better. Really get to understand them. Use question-then-answer approach to brainstorm for ideas. And then apply the three-act structure or The Hero's Journey structure to create the dramatic structure.

FIGURE 1: Storytelling using the Three-Act Structure.

In the third example I have earlier painted, the one with the defining moment as its theme, it is no doubt getting off on the right footing. However, if we segment the book into three main sections: key historical milestones, nurturing leaders of tomorrow, and caring for the community, the relationship and flow between each section may be weak and hence may cause the weakening of the dramatic tension.

Ultimately, a touching story is one that directly touches the specific audience/users that we have identified and targeted. Designing for the average audience/users will take a greater effort to resonate in their heart and soul unless we can identify and design for a common ground across, i.e. shared experiences and goals.

FIGURE 2: Get to know your audience/users better. Really get to understand them. Then you be able to conceptualise a good story that will connect them at their heart and soul.

Table 2 is my attempt to identify by guessing who the audience/users are for the three concepts described earlier.

TABLE 2: An attempt to identify by guessing the corresponding target audience/users of the three concepts illustrated in this article.

My questions are: is that all the audience/users we could identify for the NP50 Book? Is that what we want to focus in? I am not quite sure. I personally can further refine the audience/users types as in Figure 3.

FIGURE 3: The audience or user types I would identify and target. I would focus on alumni and students as the primary target audience/users and have teaching staff as secondary audience/users and the rest as tertiary audience/user type.

Notice that I have further categorised our alumni into three groups corresponding to three periods of growth of the polytechnic (note: the segmented periods are arbitrary; it is just as an exercise for the purpose of discussion), (a) 1960 & 70, (b) 1980 & 90, and (c) 2000 and beyond. And making our current students as a separate type of users.

Armed with the user types identified in Figure 3, I can now develop the story framework (Figure 4). First, the big idea: How NP transforms itself and goes the extra miles to nurture confident and responsible students of future.

FIGURE 4: The framework I would use to tell the success story of students from multiple perspectives: the teaching staff, teaching and learning, facilities, and others such as CCA and scholarships.

I will put the students at the centre stage and will tell the story from their perspectives about the polytechnic, in reminiscent of the teaching staff, facilities, environment, activities, etc. they have experienced and spent their three years in.

I like the original theme and will use that theme, Defining Moment, to drive the storytelling. The tagline I will likely create is: HOPE, my NP, your Family: 50 years of transforming lives from ordinary to extraordinary.

The tagline is an attempt to depict how NP responding to the dynamic, fast-paced and ever-changing environment to nurture students and transform their lives from ordinary to extraordinary.

When featuring the alumni, I will focus on those who have attained success in their lives, big or small, rich or not. More importantly, those who have made a decent living and contributed to the country as responsible citizens.

I will depict how our alumni in each period got over with the adversaries, be nurtured and matured to be confident and responsible graduates. I will break the story into three chapters, corresponding to the three periods:

1. 1960 & 70, 
2. 1980 & 90,
3. 2000 & beyond. 

When readers are reading the story, it depends on who you are, current students, public, alumni from different periods, this contrasting view of what is and what could be may resonate the emotional feeling of the readers. And that it delivers the core message that NP cares and gives hope to all who come to NP for their polytechnic education.

It focuses on the transformation from ordinary to extraordinary. And it reaches out to the targeted audience/users and open up to a wider public audience who may be interested to see how the polytechnic transforms the lives of their students - who knows one day their children may be keen on enrolling in a course in the polytechnic and become one of the members of the family.

The book will tell story from the students' perspectives. In each chapter, I will further segment it into three parts:

1. An introduction to the period and the educational setting then;
2. It tells the story from each component shown in Figure 4;
3. At the end of each period, two groups of alumni, those who have achieved social status and those who live happily in their own way, will share their life experience after NP.

Well! I hope you don't overly focus on how I am telling story in the NP50 book. This is not my intention. Mind you, I am not a story teller. I am only sharing my concept design.

Form follows function. Design follows concept. This is the basic rule of design. And that is my message.

Resonate - Don't present facts, transform and inspire the audience/users through storytelling. Here are some interesting interactive stories you may be interested to read:

• D-Day to Victory
• Pine Point
• Ripples of Genocide: Journey through Eastern Congo