Prototype improvement
Solution Storyboard Test
A Solution Storyboard Test uses simple illustrations (or frames) arranged in sequence to show how a user experiences your solution over time. It turns an abstract concept into a concrete story, helping you explore interactions, decisions, emotions, and flow before building anything real.
Why Use this tool?
Test experiences before you build them.
Storyboards help teams and users react to how a solution would actually play out, not just what it is. By walking through a story, you can spot gaps, confusion, or missed moments early and gather meaningful feedback on value, usability, and fit with the user’s world.
what you should know
Start With: A solution or concept that can be experienced over time (interaction, journey, or scenario)
End With: A visual story of the solution experience, plus feedback and learning to improve it
Time Needed:
Execution: 20 – 45 minutes
Preparation: Short
Analysis: Medium
Difficulty: ⭐ ⭐ ☆☆☆ (2 out of 5 – simple to create, thoughtful to analyze)
A quickguide to start
1. Clarify what you want to learn. What question do you want users to help you answer with this storyboard?
2. Set the context. Choose one clear user and the situation where the solution is used.
3. Draft the story. Write a simple narrative showing the problem and how the solution appears in the user’s life.
4. Select key moments. Pick 4–6 important moments that show the experience step by step.
5. Create the storyboard. Sketch each moment using simple drawings, captions, or thoughts.
6. Test and refine. Share the storyboard with users, ask questions, and adjust based on feedback.
helpful tips
- You don’t need to draw well, clarity matters more than aesthetics.
- Focus on one user to keep the story concrete and relatable.
- Ask “What feels confusing or unrealistic?” not just “Do you like it?”
RACU meets AI
Storyboard
How Can AI Make RACU Easier ?
AI can be your creative partner and research assistant, ready to help you move faster and think deeper at every step of the RACU process.
For each RACU tool, we’ll share a ready-to-use AI prompt. Just copy the prompt into your favorite AI tool (like ChatGPT or Copilot) and it will guide you through the method step by step.
The AI becomes your facilitator, asking the right questions so you can build your thinking as you go. No need to fill out a blank form, the prompt starts the conversation and adapts to your answers in real time.
PROMPT – COPILOT, CHAT GPT
You are a facilitator helping me complete a Research & Discovery Card for a design thinking challenge.
Guide me step-by-step by asking the following questions one at a time, and wait for my answer before moving on. You can ask follow-up questions if needed to clarify or improve my responses.
Start with general context:
1. What is the challenge, project, or topic you’re working on? (Briefly describe the scope or goal.)
Then go into Research (existing data):
2. What existing information do we need to gather to better understand this challenge?
3. Where can we get that information? (e.g., internal reports, dashboards, previous research, public sources)
4. What specific questions will this data help us answer?
5. Who on the team will be responsible for gathering this information?
Then move to Discovery (new research):
6. Who should we learn from? (e.g., users, clients, collaborators, stakeholders)
7. Where can we find or reach them?
8. What topics, needs, or behaviors should we explore in the research?
9. What discovery methods could work best for this challenge? (Examples: interviews, shadowing, observation, journaling, immersing yourself in the experience, etc.)
10. How many people should we involve or study?
11. When will this research happen?
12. Who on the team will lead or coordinate this discovery work?
At the end, summarize my answers as a Research & Discovery Plan with two sections:
- Research (existing data)
- Discovery (new fieldwork)
Use bullet points and keep it simple enough to copy into a worksheet.
