#2. Three lessons from Andrew Stanton, American filmmaker and screenwriter
I clearly remember when I was just starting out as a freelancer, coming across Andrew Stanton’s TED Talk.
(The name Andrew Stanton may not ring immediate bells. But if I mention some of the Pixar animation movies he wrote, such as WALL-E and Finding Nemo, you may also be interested in learning from him!)
Back in 2012, I was searching for a way to create outstanding designs that would distinguish me from others. I aimed to be both competitive and distinct, and I gradually learned that storytelling would help to set my work apart.
In his TED talk, Andrew shared a few clues to great storytelling (by telling us that storytelling is like a joke!) and slowly, I began applying them to my creative work.
Over a decade later, these three lessons are among the most important I have learned in terms of my work. So, I’d like to share them with you here.
Lesson One: Make me care
According to Andrew Stanton, what’s particularly important when we write a story, is ensuring that said story is worth our audience’s time.
Time is probably the most precious – yet often underrated – part of our lives. So when we design a product, we need to make sure that we start with a promise that is strong but also true. We then need to keep that promise throughout the experience.
The promise is the end of the story, because it is the answer to the user's problem, needs, and goal. In this way, the promise resonates with our audience and so we have made them care.
The 3 act structure and underline the promise as the resolution ac
As an example, when I designed pitch presentations for start-up companies I used to work with, I always took care to organise the information so that we presented the promise first, then unveiled features of our product at the end.
The promise was to answer the question: “Why should anyone care about this new product, when so many other products are jostling for our attention?"
The promise was enough to catch the VC's attention and make them care.
With that example in mind, this is the structure I used to keep in mind whenever I created a pitch:
The promise: what problem are we trying to solve and for whom?
The conflict: what are the technical challenges we are facing and how can we solve them?
The solution: presenting the product, showing how it works, and ensuring we can keep our promise.
The narrative structure I use to keep in mind whenever I create a pitch.
Extra tip: you can build a landing page, or a single page or anything else that fits these 3 steps to deliver a promise. Remember that the promise is what drives people inside a story and it is also how the story will end. This is the secret to creating a successful and engaging story.
Lesson Two: 2+2 Theory.
Here is an interesting sentence from Andrew’s TED talk: “People want to work for their meal, but they don't want to know they are doing it".
We are problem-solvers by nature. We like to fill in the gaps.
Still, how many cluttered designs out there try to cram in “everything" we’ll get from just one product? There is a time for clarity, but there is also a time to let people join the dots for themselves.
The latter is what makes an experience magic… building up expectations rather than signposting the end.
Building expectations is what creates suspense in a movie. It’s about stretching the first two acts of the three-act structure, before the user reaches the climax of the story.
When I design pages related to a product launch, I usually like the user to wonder about the product awhile, before presenting how to interact with it.
This is exactly what I did with Smart Interface Design Patterns.
I didn't want to create another website selling a design course. I wanted to tell a story and let the user find the connecting element to what the course was trying to teach.
One of the many illustrations of Smart Interface Design Pattern website.
The new Raymond Weil watch, inspired by the street artist Basquiat, also uses this approach for its website.
The design slowly unveils the product to us by listing Basquiat’s art objects and hiding additional details, like the story of the product, behind actions like ‘Learn More’ and small plus buttons.
In this way, the site does not tell much about the watch (unless we demand that it does!) but invites the user to join the dots for themselves. By marvelling at the Basquiat art spread on the page, the user can see and understand more of the inspiration that drives the design of the watch.
Some screenshots of the Raymond Weil watch inspired by Basquiat’s artworks.
Extra tips: Remember this rule when designing elements that are not so obviously seen by the user unless they stumble across them: like error pages or warning and system messages that are supposed to alert and inform the user, while still keeping them engaged in the navigation.
Lesson Three: Evoke wonder
The third lesson is probably the most difficult. Andrew Stanton suggests that the best stories evoke wonder by drawing from our own experiences.
There is no greater power available to us than offering another person the sensation of surprise through our own direct experience.
As such, I translated this concept into transforming the ordinary into the extraordinary.
In 2018 I was asked to design a book, called The Power of Digital Policy, for Kristina Podnar. It was a book that could have been boring for the subject it discusses (Kristina was deeply afraid of this possibility!), but in reality, was transformed into an engaging page-turner of a book.
Drawn from Kristina's experience (she told me how she explained digital policy to her small son by comparing it to a garden with a fence) and my love for the novel The Secret Garden, I designed a book in which difficult concepts are translated into a visual appealing map, characters, and natural elements to navigate in the complex and intricate world of digital policy.
The illustrative map of the book of Kristina Podnar, The Power of Digital Policy.
By the same token, I admire the way these two websites have been designed to transform a personal experience into an interactive story to be shared with others.
Some screenshots of the website, Half of 8.
Some screenshots of the website, 84-24.
Both websites represent a personal journal by their designers; one about scaling Mount Fuji through the Yoshida Trail and the other repairing and reviving an old time classic computer, the Macintosh.
In both websites, two ordinary objects—a walking stick and an old computer – become the protagonists of an interactive journey of discovery, aiming to evoke a sense of adventure and nostalgia in the user's mind.
Extra tip: Don't evoke emotions just to make things extraordinary. Always start with the scope of creating an experience that is pleasant and not overwhelming for the user. Otherwise, the story may feel forced and inappropriate.
And regarding the joke… let me explain the analogy…
Think of the last time you heard a funny joke.
It probably started with a promise like, “I have a great joke to share!"
The teller then delivered the joke using the 2+2 theory, which means she didn't explain the punchline…
…because it’s that missing awkward part that makes people laugh and motivates them to share it with others in the hope of evoking the same emotions (evoke another laugh).
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