Story Telling in Design - How to Hook people on to your projects ?

Storytelling is the single most thing with which we have successfully evolved as a Homo sapiens. Are you guys thinking about how it is this podcast is going to really clarify you and also how as a designer, you can use that same strategies and techniques to really bind and hook people to your projects, to your portfolio, to your communication, to your presentation. And this is exactly how you can follow it. Okay, so this podcast is going to give you techniques and, and tips and resources and materials how you can build your story, how you can create a story narrative on how you can hook your people. Okay, take a lot of notes. Let's dive into this podcast. Welcome guys. Welcome to this podcast. Now let me tell you, storytelling is the single most important ability which was developed by our humans as the evolutionary trait to bind people, to find shelter, to hunt their preys, and also to really survive themselves. Let me tell you one small story to explain you what is storytelling? Okay, see guys, before 30,000 years or 40,000 years, we are living in forest. We are living in different, different places with terrains, near mountains, near rivers, near places which is low in temperature, which is high, extreme in what you call weather. So people have surv because of this single ability. You know what guys? People used to stay in different, different places. Like what you call. Some of the people have a different set of characteristics. Some of the people have nature of shy. Some of the people are very bold, some of the people are outspoken. So there has been a different characteristics of human beings. Okay, so the big problem what happened is people are not able to bind each other. More than 30 to 40 people, they were not able to live together. Lot of disputes in communication, lot of fights. Everything has happened. The problem is this is actually this. I've read it from a book called Sapience. Okay, so Ul Novar Harari is what you call a very great person who has historically researched this evolution of human and then he has written it in a very simple form. You can go and read that book. It will give you much clarity on how humans really made a successful what you call pass on to the generation which is like Homo sapiens, which we are right now. There are many species of human beings which have lost. I'll tell you why they have lost. It's because of how they are able to communicate their message, how they were able to tell stories. There is something called imagined reality, you know, because people don't know whether that's going to happen or not. But they make other person believe through telling some stories, through making some imaginary characters, through making some imaginary objects and visualization to make sure the other person is really believing that. You know what that is called? Telling stories. When you wanted to get the attention of the person, when you wanted to get an attention of a kid or a child or somebody, or maybe an old person or anybody, you need to understand stories are the one which has been evolutionarily imbibed in us, which can trigger that curiosity to sit in a place to understand that. So now you can understand why people are sitting in three hours of a movie without even a break. And why when a presentation is given in five minutes, we started shaking our body. What you call, we stand up, we drink water. This, that stories has a power of binding people. Our ancestors 20, 30 years or even lot of years before have really understood it by somehow by their senses. Okay, so they were able to tell stories in the night times, in the day times, to really make the people sit. And also they communicated messages, they communicated informations. They communicated that lion is on that side, elephant is on that side. If you go this side, danger will come. So people understood this very carefully. People understood this by really imprinting in themselves, okay, this is what is really happening. So they were very much prepared before knowing that. Whereas the other human bands which stayed in other regions, which has another characteristics, you know, they didn't follow this method because they were not aware of it. They were just communicating it. Lot of people are not getting the clarity. A lot of people are not able to get the communication. They simply go and get killed. They simply go and get killed by other human beings. The people who are prepared were well communicated, well coordinated, well binded, and they were able to build their community into 200, 300 plus people. And that is why they were able to successfully live in different regions, live in different dangerous regions. Also unable to evolve as a human being. So what is a common trait out of it? People's attention, people's storytelling ability, people's attention to grab that other people and make them sit for some time and communicating their message. Okay, are you guys getting it? What I'm trying to say, it's all about how you make the person hooked to your project. It's all about how you make a person hooked to your portfolio. This is why you are able to get a good job. This is why you are able to get attracted to other person. This is why you will get a chance to talk to other people about your project, to get hired. So we are going to address in this podcast how the same abilities of storytelling can be utilized again by you, which is already there in our Genes which is already there in our human nature, right? So the very first ability, what I will tell you guys, okay? Now let's come to the technique. So far you have understood why storytelling is important and how we have transferred from our ancestors to here and why it is very, very vital. Let me tell you how you can utilize that in this current scenario to become a creative designer. Even when you're presenting a small project, even when you're presenting portfolio, this particular techniques if you are able to adopt, you will be most successful guys, okay? Because it is tested and proved by nature. It's not proven by me or somebody, you will know how. This is what mother nature has already evolved successfully, okay? So it's tested and proved for billions of years. You can directly copy, paste and use it. So the very first technique in building your stories is you need to find your user's need first, whom you're going to tell story for. What is their needs, what's their desires, what's their real pain areas. Try to understand that in terms of human centric design, right? See nowadays we talk about human centric design. So you need to decipher that element and think in terms of who is your audience, what is their real need? Like let's say if they are recruiter, they need skills, they need a conviction, they need a trust, they need a proof that you know lot of projects and skills that you can develop using that skills to solve a problem for them, right? If you're presenting to your manager or your client, you need to tell that client that you have that skill to solve his problem, to increase its profitability, to increase his customer base, to increase his click through rates, through his website or app. So understand their pain point and have the clarity. Okay? This is the first technique. Let's now go for the second part which is creating emotions. See guys, when you're not able to add an emotion, when you're not able to touch people through stories through that emotion, through that particular scene, you will not be able to pin a successful story out of it. Okay? You have exactly understood what your customer need. You have exactly understood what is their pain area, what's their real struggle point. And then you devised a solution. But if you don't know how to touch their emotions to tell through a story, the impact will not go viral. I'll tell you why. Let's take an example to make you to understand this. Okay, so let's say people are getting affected by working in sea wages, working in manual scavenging, right? It's one of the what you call big trouble areas where people work. A lot of different communities and different parts of society really work there. So a lot of people are getting affected, a lot of people are getting died. So you're going to build a solution for that. Okay, Imagine that. Let's say if you're telling this story, let's say if you're telling this particular narrative and your project is something like that. Let's say if your interview is in front of you, okay, so you're going to tell sir, I'm going to solve a problem where people are getting more problem into working in manual scavenging, working in sea wages. They lose their life. I'm going to really make an application or a product design or a physical machine. Product design could be digital or physical. Anything which can solve them, which can help them solve their problems so that they will be living longer life and working safely. This is concept A. Okay. Does it really touch you? I don't know whether it really touched you. But now I'll tell you one important thing. Okay? Remember this concept B which I'm telling you with more, more conviction and emotion and my way of storytelling. Okay? Listen to it. Hi sir, I'm Jagdish. I came to know from a recent report from Hindustan Times that Every single day 60 people die because of manual scavenging. And out of this 30 percentage of the people were not even accounted properly in the media or a mainstream channel. You know what? I'm going to design a solution which is going to help these people bring to the light and also help the public understand the importance of it. And also make sure this is becoming a big propaganda through my application, through my propaganda message through the website, what I'm developing, I'm going to directly post it to the Indian government. This is exactly the project what I did and I did the research for this and you tell me whether this project is really good or not. Can I do it right? See you have not started the project but you've set the context and then you created a story narrative for it. Still you have not completed the story, you're just starting it. But how interesting it sounds like. See guys, when a story is created you need to have something like a hero. You need to have something like a final goal. Okay? What your hero is going to reach there and in between is a struggle. How the villain really made the hero get struggled. How the circumstances and situation made the hero get struggled. And finally how the hero has transformed himself into the winner here, the hero. These people are working in manual Scavenging. The final goal is to make them healthy and happier living. The struggle is because of the poor working conditions, the system, the government, whatever the government, everything is a problem. What we are seeing, right? So if you are able to tell this through a numbers or a stat or a proper hero, villain kind of a thing, the concept B what I told you would have made more sense right now. Let's go for the concept C. Imagine. Guys. Okay, just listen very carefully. This is most important. Hi guys. Hi sir. I'm Jagdish. It's been a month. I lost one of my neighbor who is working for a manual scavenging job. His age is 45, he has two kids. His name is Merlin. And I was just living two houses next to him. I came to know a very dark gas which has attacked him while he was working in manual scavenging. And the point is, when he went for the hospital, nobody is even able to detect why he is dying. It's been a week, he has been suffering in the hospital. And after that doctor came to know that this was the most toxic gas which is coming out of the human secretion waste and that killed him. The surprising thing is there are more than 20 people who have died in this last month with the same problem across the country. And the government is not even talking about it. Nobody's even cared about it. Right now the children are struggling in the middle of the street where the income owner of the person is his father and he is no more. What is the government going to do for them? I am going to design a solution for how this kind of incidents can be captured through our digital media. And how these families can be helped through some NGOs and government and direct support from the public seed funding and how they can really live a sustained life. And parallel with this funding, I am going to help design better products. How they can work better. Which concept will be selected, guys? Of course the concept C, right? So I've told the same thing. There is nothing difference between concept A, B, C. It's all about we are saving the person from working conditions of a manual scavenging. Even I've used some statistic. But even in the concept too I've used statistics, right? The point is how you are able to tell the story and how you are able to connect the hero and a villain through a pain point. How we can cross it. You become wonderful Hollywood directors. Best directors, best storytellers, best screenplay artists knew this technique. I learned it from a book called Expert Secret which was written by Russell Brunson. When I read this particular information, I really got blown. So much of times we are not able to tell people what we wanted to tell because we don't know how to tell the things right. Have you, have you ever experienced you tell a very important information and a story which has happened to you, which is very traumatizing or maybe in the extreme end it is very comedy, but the other people is not feeling it. Why? Because you don't know how to tell that right now. If you have listened to this podcast, you would have understood the main element which I told you. When you're telling a story, you should have a hero, you should have a villain, you should be able to tell a pain point how that hero crossed it. See guys, if you use this technique, there is no project which will be really waste in your portfolio. It's the way in which you tell the story matters. It's not about the what you call a story or it's not about the director, it's not about the hero, villain. It could be anything. But the way in which you put that elements, then people start hooking to your portfolio. It's not about fancy UI stuffs, guys. It's not about fancy video effects or something like that. Have you seen a very low quality tampered video of atem side camera? Somebody is taking the money out of somebody and the robber is coming and stabbing a person and then they're taking the ATM card and then they are pulling the money from the machine and running. Does this video have any kind of a visual effect or UI or something like an interactive color schemes? It's just a black and white dull night, 12 o' clock video, how people are hooked to it. It's because of the story. It's because of the interesting element what that particular video is kept right? So you can understand guys filming video storytelling and all these things doesn't lie in aesthetics, fancy things, it lies in which how you tell the story. Okay? Then you will be able to create a better portfolio and a better project for you. So let me tell you in real case, guys, if you're having a project, think about what is your story narrative. Think about the characters, think about your user centric approach. Add emotion to your user characters and understand his pain points, understand his desires, understand how it can reflectively touch them. See, visceral is something when you get attracted to a poster, when you get attracted to a trailer teaser. But reflective is something which emotionally that picture or a video touches you emotionally, that project touches you. Right? The concept. See what I Told you you really imagined Merlin as if he is one of your person whom you have seen. And you imagine the two kids right when I told you so. That is the point of telling stories through emotions. And when you are able to structure this into your project, finding out who is your story narrative, who is your character, who is your will and what's your pain point in one line you can able to hook the people. Guys, you don't need fancy visuals at all. That's added fine. That's icing on the cake. Not a problem. You can do it. There's no problem in that. Okay, but if you're not able to tell that, you're gone. Guys, I hope you would have understood the importance of storytelling. There are a lot of brands which has become successful because of this. Guys, Nike, have you seen, they just not create products for sports people. They just create them in order to push the boundaries, in order to push the technology, in order to use the technology to make push the sports people go out of normal realities, right? They make the extreme condition shoes, they make the extreme condition weather T shirts and clothings. And they make the logo also in that way, just to a tick mark, right? They have a tagline. So this is a story, nothing else. Nike is just story which you are able to connect with or see. There are thousands of brands. Why would I tell Nike now there is another brand, Airbnb, right? See, Airbnb is not just giving you some stay. It's like each and every home, what you're staying is going to tell a story. So you don't forget that home, you don't forget that memories. You don't forget Airbnb. That's it, right? See how they hooked their project, their product and their services with the people's emotion, Vodafone. Nobody can forget the dog, right? The hatch dog. So the thing is there is a story, there is a character, there is a what you call a dog which will come and do all sort of things. And there is a. There is a. What do you call. There is another advertisement which is called five star brand, right? Cadbury's five Star. There used to be two small dogs and one guy used to say. Yep, that means the two what you call dog characters name. So one guy would be standing in the middle of the street and what do you call. He would be like in. In between the street, he'll be blocking the way. So the hero will come and say like Yappa po pa. That means in the local Tamil language it means haree. Please move ahead. Hey, Please move ahead. That's the meaning of it. Okay, so Baar Jao. So this guy would be telling it with a great emotion. But luckily he has lost his two dogs. Okay, his two dog's name is Epa Popa. So when he called that, that dog used to come from the back of the car which he has lost. So he would be really happy. Oh my God. I got my dog back. Thank you son. You have not did anything. You're just standing in the road. Maybe if you would have moved my car, maybe if you have moved your car, my dogs would have got died. It's good that you stayed here, right? See, there is no absolute connection between eating five star and telling this story and emotion. But the point is that guy would be eating five star and he would be mesmerized in the moment, not even listening to outside people. So see how the story is revolving around to make the five star brand better. Nobody's talking about five star chocolate. What ingredient it has, how sweet it is, how, which kind of a sexy packaging it has been put. Nobody cares. People care about the two dogs, people care about the emotion and people care about the outcome. When a person eats five star, he goes into a different state where he doesn't even listen to outside, right? You can tune into YouTube to see that. Advertisement Yapa Popa five star ad. You will be able to get a clarity. So understand this guys, why people are hooking you with that. Have you seen Coke advertisement share a Coke campaign with loud ones? So that's a personalized thing what you have, right? Like let's say if somebody is giving you a label, somebody is giving you a greeting card, somebody is giving you a kind of a personalized, what you call signature or something, you keep it for a longer time. Like people keep a broken glass also because it's given by their grandma, it's because given by their loved ones. So if you're able to touch that kind of an emotion with you, then you are touching the reflective side of a human. Not just a visual side, visceral side is just attracting by them through visually. Yeah, that's also important. But most 80% important is reflective. So if you are able to resonate with this guys, please immediately apply these principles in any one of your project and take action to make sure you are successful. Okay? So let me suggest you some resources also guys. You can read a book called Resonate by Nancy Juretta. It's a very good storytelling book. You can read a book called what you call design of everyday things where there Also storytelling topic is there, you can read about it and you can able to practice it. There are some digital tools, very simple tools like Canva. There are some paid tools also like Adobe Spark where you can tell visual storytelling through pictures, through some small gifs, through some videos, through some text. So explore it in that way. Feel free to play around these tools and make sure people are able to hook to your projects and visuals. Okay? So I hope you would have found this podcast useful. If you are really interested in hearing lot many content like this, please hit me what you call subscribe button and get notified for the further episodes. And also if you need my mentoring and support to tell more stories like this, to have your story hooked to your projects and portfolio, to get hired how you can really crack any interviews using the storytelling techniques, please reach out to that email. I will be able to happily help you guys. Okay, so to finally close this podcast, let me give you an action point. Write 10 stories what happened in your school? Write 10 stories. What happened in your parish. Write 10 stories what happened in the last 30 days of your life. Okay, think about it guys. If you're unable to, if you're not able to extract stories from your own life, definitely you will be a poor storytellers. You won't be even getting hooked for the people next to you, for your mom, for your dad, for your siblings, for your friends. Leave outside people, right? So if you are not able to recollect what stories and emotions you had, it could be a good story, it could be a bad story, no problem, right? But you need to Write down the 10 stories and make sure you try to put it in your interview skip. You try to put it in your portfolio, you try to put it in your website. People will be more interested to see you guys. You can maybe record a small video in your phone, on a product, in your portfolio, in your website. People can see that. They can feel what is your real intention of being a designer? People get hook to that emotion. Okay? So thank you so much guys. Please take the action because listening to this podcast will not change anything. Taking action will do. Okay, thank you so much. Take care. Bye bye. See you guys.