Join Me at CIID Summer School: "Happily Ever After: Storytelling in Interaction Design"

This summer, join me from July 7-11, 2014 at Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design's Summer School for a week-long workshop that will help you become a stronger storyteller and improve your product and service design efforts. 

This workshop, entitled "Happily Ever After: Storytelling in Interaction Design," draws from my semester-long storytelling class that I've taught since 2012 in the BFA in Interaction Design program at California College of the Arts (CCA). You'll take part in individual and collaborative storytelling challenges, which will build up to a long-form story project that will stretch your storytelling and design skills to the limit. The workshop will be co-taught with Mary Sherwin, who helped me build the CCA class and brings her perspective and expertise as a writer, teacher, and master public speaking coach.

What follows is the full abstract for the workshop, and you can register for the workshop here.

"Happily Ever After: Storytelling in Interaction Design"
CIID Summer School, July 7-11, 2014
Copenhagen, Denmark

Plot. Genre. Character. Conflict. Terms that you usually hear in association with the latest Hollywood thriller or blockbuster novel, not breakthrough interaction design. But as a designer, need to be strong not only at the craft of creating compelling products and services. You need to be able to construct and tell great stories, in the service of advancing the needs of your users and creating desirable, delightful experiences.

In this week-long class at CIID Summer School, you’ll explore:

• Why stories are crucial as part of the product and service design process, from gathering stories from research (what is?) to envisioning future-forward experiences (what if?)
• What story elements are necessary as part of envisioning those experiences: character, setting, conflict, motivation, scenic construction, compelling use of detail, and so forth
• How design teams use story-based tools at various levels of fidelity: user stories, user journeys, scenario-based storyboards, animatics, and video prototyping

Then, in a multi-day team design project, you’ll have a chance to experiment with different storytelling tools, resulting in a compelling video prototype of your solutions

Requirements for participation: It is encouraged for participants to have a baseline familiarity with the design process, a computer with rudimentary video editing software, and a smartphone/camera with which to take still and video photographs.

If you've never been to Copenhagen in the summer, this is one of the best times of year to visit this wonderful city. We hope to see you there!