Comments on: Comics: Not just for laughs!

By: mhardee

mhardee — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

We use comics at Sun for a variety of web design and customer experience projects, and we have posted a set of illustrated scenes and characters to you use at: designcomics.org We’ve placed these images into the public domain so you can use them as you will.

- Martin Hardee

By: maxlord

maxlord — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I have been drawing comics since middle school, so it was a natural tool for me when I started UX work back in the dark ages before all the normal techniques kind of standardized themselves. In the first shop I worked in, we also did a lot of simplified comic-styled versions of on-screen UIs. While I like the comic format for presentations, I find a traditional storyboard format better for me as a daily tool. It contains more information, but it’s still accessible to non-technical audiences. It was the absolute best option when doing work for Disney too (of course).

In a client role, I would be tickled pink to get information presented in this manner!

I hope everyone using comics chimes in so I can steal ideas.

By: rahelab

rahelab — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Using comics to storyboard to explain UX is only a step away from using comics as user guides. (Slight tangent but I haven’t seen this discussed anywhere.)

In the 1990s, when I worked for the provincial Legal Aid agency, we produced “how to” comic books for First Nations communities (equivalent of “Native American” communities) to communicate what to do in common legal situations where people might not qualify for legal aid but may not be able to afford a lawyer. The comic books were very well received, because they were seen as relevant due to their cultural specificity, and the advantage was that we reached a vulnerable audience whose literacy skills may not have allowed them to slog through a traditional booklet on “legal options after spousal abuse” or “legal recourse after removal of your children”.

Like using comics for UX work, comics are an economical and evocative way to explain complex topics at a glance. Putting the amount of information we got into an 8- or 12-page comic was an incredibly effective way of communicating not just the technical info, but also communicating mountains of contextual info that would never have made its way into any other textual or graphic (as in Visio) representation of a process.

By: rwild

rwild — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Here’s a range of (single and multi-panel) examples:
http://www.1-900-870-6235.com/eLearning/Images/eLearningMapCartoon.jpg
http://www.1-900-870-6235.com/Images/RWMapCartoonPrint.jpg
http://www.1-900-870-6235.com/Images/DividingLineCartoon.jpg
http://www.1-900-870-6235.com/Images/FlagOnMoon.jpg
http://www.1-900-870-6235.com/Images/TornMapReaders.jpg
http://www.1-900-870-6235.com/Images/PeaceGames.jpg

By: danward

danward — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Here’s another example of using a comic to convey important ideas. After writing a series of articles for the DoD’s technology development journal, my colleagues and I put together a 2-page superhero-style comic to literally illustrate the concepts. We wanted to get the attention of people who typically don’t read journal articles, and the response was fantastic.

You can see the PDF of the comic at http://www.dau.mil/pubs/dam/03_04_2006/fist_ma06.pdf.

By: richard13

richard13 — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

In a recent scenario / storyboard we used some team members as actors and did informal photo-shoots, then used Photoshop filters to blur them so that they were less detailed (and less distracting from the actual story). It actually worked really well!

By: praveenkvma

praveenkvma — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I am very impressed and loved your thought process to use comics to communicate design. Really innovative and engaging. And thanks Rebekah for sharing the visio stensil.

By: dcelfving

dcelfving — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Art Spiegelman (following Will Eisner) prefers the term sequential art to the mildly pejorative comics. When seen as sequential art, comics seem a logical avenue for exploring and communicating user experience. Further, the visual language of comics can be helpful when it comes to actually designing interfaces and organizing information. So it's great to see that the idea is catching on! I'm tired of explaining that my piles of comics are part of an ongoing research project.

By: chrispalle

chrispalle — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Hmm, I’m having quite a few, duh-why-didn’t-I-think-of-that moments reading this article and the great comments. I’ve thought though ideas in a storyboarding format before, but demonstrating the actual persons in different scenarios makes a ton of sense. Especially when persuading upper management, a client, or even your teammates to go with an idea. Interestingly, I rediscovered an application that came with my MacBook Pro called “Comic Life” produced by http://plasq.com/

The important part of the process here though is not how to get down on paper, but rather, the process. Rebekah made the most important point in Step 1. The ideas need to be well-crafted and articulate first. Ensure that what is put in the final is only the essentials.

Another point some of the comments alluded to here, that since the practitioners of our discipline are sometimes stereotyped, using comic illustrations (sequential art) does help us break out of that a bit. One comment reminded me of how an art director at an agency who totally typified me as an un-creative because my role there was to produce IA docs. I get the sense that is kinda true for a lot the visual folks. Involving them in this aspect of strategy could really help build bridges in the agency environment.

Great help, Rebekah. Thanks for the sparks.

By: baumr1

baumr1 — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Just fyi that we’ve added a footnote to this story more clearly attributing Kevin Cheng’s fantastic “Communicating Concepts through Comics”:http://kevnull.com/creating-concepts-through-comics/ presentations. This story is a case study showing that these ideas work. Nice work, Rebekah, and thanks to Kevin for spreading the good word far and wide. We’re doing our best to help that along.