Stories that Move Mountains: Storytelling and Visual Design for Persuasive Presentations

Ideation

Ideation is the process of forming ideas. It represents the brainstorming of the individual or group, in a “no-holds-barred” stream of creative consciousness to consider all that is possible. The blank page is the mind-killer. Very little else comes so close to halting the creative process. Some design teachers will suggest you draw a first line on the page simply to break the spell and get started.

You have a lot of content to start the ideation process. Many people will start with the story structure identified in Chapter 10 to decide on an overall layout. For example, if you chose The Quest, you might start laying out a journey and a set of ordeals on the page (refer to Chapter 10 to review the main stages in the story structure for ideas). You might also work with the characters you identified in Chapter 11 to create focal points on the page for the character interactions.

The best way to avoid being stuck in front of a blank page is by releasing all judgment on visual ideas. The core of productive ideation expands outward through the urgency of free association. Mindmapping is one way people like designers generate many ideas quickly. Mindmapping qualifies your intentions and makes the story real as you document all that's possible in an organic and very “human” way. Remember that the only reason you're mindmapping is to “map” your content to corresponding visuals and see what's possible.

DOCUMENT

In the Ideation phase, document your ideas for visual approaches. ...