Reﬂection-Storytelling

Challenge

I am a development professional and work with 200,000 the most vulnerable, marginalised and

very low income group of people. My purpose of engagement is to enhance their income by

building their capacity, supporting and handholding in livelihood selection, livelihood

generation, and overall holistic development including education to their children, health &

sanitation, nutrition, and continuous saving for the rainy days. Working with ultra-poor people,

I realised that capacity building not only to the ultra-poor households, but also to cadres

involved in their handholds and staﬀ ensuring ﬁeld level implementation is the key to success.

And designing uniform and easy to understand capacity building material was a huge

challenge before us. It was quite necessary to build empathy among cadres and staﬀ and reach

to the beneﬁciaries emotionally.

Selection and Approach

After completing design research to understand the aspirations,needs and desires of the

targeted beneﬁciaries, we used your insights to tell a story about who the users are, what they

need and how the staﬀ and cadres provide those services and solutions. This storytelling made

it easy for everyone involved in the project to empathize with the users and ensure that their

work matches the story. Having a story throughout your project means marketing the design at

the end of the design process is also straightforward, as you already know exactly which story

to tell to show how your product provides value. We use the following formula:-

1. Pilot - What are user goals and problems which they are trying to overcome or achieve?

2. Character - Using the Insights, clear understanding on what the users characteristics are?

3. Theme - Establishing trustworthy presence

4. Dialogue and melody- What will the design say to users and how? Does a

formal/informal tone match their expectations? How much text is appropriate? How will

the overall design pa�ern appear pleasant and predictable to users, moving them

emotionally?

5. Decor – How will we present everything so the graphics match the se�ing the users can

sense? Would a classic design or stylized, niche layout meet their expectations?

6. Spectacle – How can we make your design outstanding so users will remember it?

Application

Stories take on a variety of forms: digital storytelling, visual storytelling, storyboards, scenario

generation, storytelling through videos, skits or plays, animation, talk and image, text or image.

These forms open up possibilities for many analytical approaches including, thematic, content,

discourse (use of language), and structural. The trends and pa�erns derived from these

analyses, in turn, form the bases of additional qualitative and quantitative data collection that

value human needs as the authentic foundation of research-based challenges, opportunities and

solutions.

Insights

Listening to and empathizing with their needs, I gained enormous insights into the types of

support services and mentoring ﬁrst gens feel will help them navigate the economic and social

challenges they face. Hunger, social isolation, Anxiety and bewilderment are pa�erns of

behavior I found among low-income families. The social isolation, low self-conﬁdence, low

skills of employment, no trust to the government services and agencies.

In sum, storytelling is a powerful communication tool that enables us as human beings to

understand more about our emotional experiences. This makes it an eﬀective method to use

during the design process. It can be used during the design thinking process phases with a

diﬀerent goal in each stage. Storytelling can help us to gather personalised emotional data about

our targeted users’ experience which can be hard to collect using other research methods such

as the survey and consumer journey mapping.


Reﬂection - Storytelling Challenge I am a development professional and work with 200,000 the most vulnerable , marginalised and very low income group of people . My purpose of engagement is to enhance their income by building their capacity , supporting and handholding in livelihood selection , livelihood generation , and overall holistic development including education to their children , health & sanitation , nutrition , and continuous saving for the rainy days . Working with ultra - poor people , I realised that capacity building not only to the ultra - poor households , but also to cadres involved in their handholds and staﬀ ensuring ﬁeld level implementation is the key to success . And designing uniform and easy to understand capacity building material was a huge challenge before us . It was quite necessary to build empathy among cadres and staﬀ and reach to the beneﬁciaries emotionally . Selection and Approach After completing design research to understand the aspirations , needs and desires of the targeted beneﬁciaries , we used your insights to tell a story about who the users are , what they need and how the staﬀ and cadres provide those services and solutions . This storytelling made it easy for everyone involved in the project to empathize with the users and ensure that their work matches the story . Having a story throughout your project means marketing the design at the end of the design process is also straightforward , as you already know exactly which story to tell to show how your product provides value . We use the following formula:- 1 . Pilot - What are user goals and problems which they are trying to overcome or achieve ? 2 . Character - Using the Insights , clear understanding on what the users characteristics are ? 3 . Theme - Establishing trustworthy presence 4 . Dialogue and melody- What will the design say to users and how ? Does a formal / informal tone match their expectations ? How much text is appropriate ? How will the overall design pa � ern appear pleasant and predictable to users , moving them emotionally ? 5 . Decor – How will we present everything so the graphics match the se � ing the users can sense ? Would a classic design or stylized , niche layout meet their expectations ? 6 . Spectacle – How can we make your design outstanding so users will remember it ? Application Stories take on a variety of forms : digital storytelling , visual storytelling , storyboards , scenario generation , storytelling through videos , skits or plays , animation , talk and image , text or image . These forms open up possibilities for many analytical approaches including , thematic , content , discourse ( use of language ) , and structural . The trends and pa � erns derived from these analyses , in turn , form the bases of additional qualitative and quantitative data collection that value human needs as the authentic foundation of research - based challenges , opportunities and solutions . Insights Listening to and empathizing with their needs , I gained enormous insights into the types of support services and mentoring ﬁrst gens feel will help them navigate the economic and social challenges they face . Hunger , social isolation , Anxiety and bewilderment are pa � erns of behavior I found among low - income families . The social isolation , low self - conﬁdence , low skills of employment , no trust to the government services and agencies . In sum , storytelling is a powerful communication tool that enables us as human beings to understand more about our emotional experiences . This makes it an eﬀective method to use during the design process . It can be used during the design thinking process phases with a diﬀerent goal in each stage . Storytelling can help us to gather personalised emotional data about our targeted users ’ experience which can be hard to collect using other research methods such as the survey and consumer journey mapping .