Stop Calling Everyone a Storyteller and Learn the Craft
Understanding the true craft of storytelling in design can enhance user experience by creating products that guide users smoothly, making them the hero of their own journey.
By Ray with my favorite human, Benjamin Scott. Design Brief,
Every deck says it. Every portfolio says it. "We tell stories." The word has gotten so cheap that it means nothing. And yet the thing behind the word is real: people remember stories, they act on them, and a product that flows like a good story is easier to use than one that does not. The gap is that leaders reach for the label without learning the craft underneath it. This brief is about closing that gap. Study how stories actually work, then put the parts to work in your product, not the buzzword.
The deep cut
- Story is a tool, not a title. Stefan Sagmeister rejects calling every creative a storyteller because the label hides the actual job.
- A buzzword skips the structure. Emma Taggart calls storytelling a term you find "all too often," pasted on work with no arc behind it.
- Draw the flow before the pixels. Braden Kowitz lays mockups out like film frames to catch where users get stuck.
Why the word stopped meaning anything
When everyone claims a skill, the claim goes flat. Stefan Sagmeister pushes back on the habit of calling every designer a storyteller, because it dresses ordinary work in trendy language and dodges the real question: what is this thing actually doing for the person using it? A logo is not a story. A landing page is not a story. Naming it one does not make it one.
Emma Taggart is just as blunt, calling storytelling "a buzzword that you'll find all too often" across design and marketing. So start by being honest with your team. Sometimes you are telling a story. Often you are laying out a form or a settings page. Both are fine. Only one needs an arc.
What earns the label
Strip the term back and it means specific parts working together: a beginning, a rising middle, and an end that resolves. Taggart points out you rarely need the whole novel. Pick one element and use it well: theme, character, a clear point of view, or the plot of the user's journey. A recurring visual thread does the same work a character does, giving people something to hold onto as they move through.
The reason to bother is memory and action. Storytelling.design cites a Carnegie Mellon fundraising test where a letter built around one girl's story pulled 118 percent more donations than a letter full of statistics. Facts inform. A story moves people to do something. That is the payoff you are chasing, and it only shows up when the parts are actually there.
Draw the story before you polish it
The cleanest way to bring this into product work comes from Braden Kowitz, who arranges mockups in sequence like frames of a film. You see the whole flow from first screen to last, in order, before anyone argues over color. Problems in the user's journey jump out early, when they are cheap to fix. This is story structure doing real work, not decoration.
Storytelling.design makes the same case for the web: start with a storyboard, then build words and visuals hand in hand instead of designing in a silo and pouring content in later. Set the pace so details unfold instead of dumping everything at once. When your team maps the flow first, you are answering the plainest question in the craft: where does this begin, where does it turn, and how does it end.
Make the user the hero, not the brand
If you run brand or experience work, the trap is casting your product as the star. Natasha Mortimer flips that. She makes the audience the hero and the brand the mentor, the guide who helps them win. That framing keeps you focused on what the person needs rather than what you want to say about yourself. Her studio builds personas, then adds real conflict that mirrors a user's actual problems.
To build the underlying skill, point your team at Pixar's free course on Khan Academy, where Pixar artists break down what makes a story stick and how they build characters and arcs. It is short, concrete, and made by people who do this for a living. Learn the moves there, then bring them back to product pitches and user flows.
Three questions for your team
- Where in this product does the user get stuck in the story we are telling, and do we agree on what a good ending looks like? Lay the screens out in sequence, Kowitz style, before you touch visual polish.
- Are we actually telling a story here, or are we hiding behind the word? Name the real job each piece of work does, and drop the label where it does not fit.
- Is the user the hero of this experience, or did we cast ourselves in the lead? Rewrite the flow so the brand plays mentor and the person wins.
