Starting a new project always feels the same: clients bring us a case, and we’re expected to come up with the solution. But facing a blank page is never easy. We research, gather insights, and map out user flows, yet it’s still difficult to picture the bigger story.
That’s where storyboarding comes in.
Also Read: Show, Don’t Tell: Utilizing Illustrations to Level Up Your UI/UX
What Is UX Storyboarding?
At its core, UX storyboarding is a way to visually represent a user’s journey through a product or flow. Think of it like a film storyboard, but instead of scenes, it maps how someone navigates your product, what they experience, and how it feels. By blending context, scenarios, and visuals, it helps unify the vision for all stakeholders.
A typical UX storyboard combines:
- Scenario – Set the situation so others understand the context.
- Visuals – Show each step with sketches, illustrations, or photos. These highlight the environment, the product, and how the user interacts with it.
- Captions – Add short notes to explain what’s happening in each frame — actions, feelings, or environment.
- Even rough sketches are enough to get started. You can zoom in on the product, zoom out to focus on the user’s story, or mix both.
Why Use UX Storyboarding?
They help translate abstract insights into something the whole team can see and align on.
1. Research and Testing
Instead of only writing notes, storyboards help capture how users interact with your product, what they say, or even their expressions.
2. Journey Maps
Adding visuals to journey maps makes it easier for the team to see the user’s context, like what device they use or where they are.
3. Prioritization
Storyboards show where users feel stuck or frustrated, so the team can agree on which problems to solve first.
4. Ideation
They’re also handy for exploring new ideas, imagining how a feature might fit into someone’s daily life.
How We Use It
At Antikode, we use storyboarding in projects with many touchpoints, or where emotions play a big role. It helps us map not only what users do and feel, but also how details like animations or transitions shape the overall flow.
For example, in our work with Make-A-Wish Indonesia, storyboarding aligned the team on the emotional weight of the journey.
Each frame showed how a parent or child might interact with the website from discovering the foundation, to reading heartfelt stories, to submitting a wish request. Simple sketches with short captions kept empathy at the center.
Source: Antikode
This helped stakeholders see beyond wireframes and screens. Instead, they could picture real people moving through the experience, and understand why clarity, storytelling, and emotional resonance were just as important as usability.
Also Read: Color, Characters & Clicks: Engaging Children Through Design
In the end, storyboarding isn’t just about sketching screens. It’s about making the experience feel real before it even exists.
By turning flows into simple narratives, we can align teams on both the practical and the emotional sides of design. It helps everyone see not just what people do, but how they feel along the way and that’s where design starts to make a real impact.
Check out our Make-A-Wish Indonesia case study, where storyboarding played a key role in shaping the experience.