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

Tell the Story Right

The second most common problem is the creation of a visual story without a clear plan for how it's going to be delivered to the audience that needs to support the change.

We've seen great stories and visuals developed, but never seen by the people who should see them because the authors didn't work out how to get the message to the audience. The Story and Tell rows are designed to ensure that the visual story reaches members of the intended audience, enabling them to act on it.

He who fails to plan is planning to fail.

—Winston Churchill

Imagine how different the Cheshire Cat in Alice's adventures would seem if he had been represented as a tiger. Makari is a beautiful tiger, but he does not have the characteristics we expect for the Cheshire Cat. Think about this as you develop your visual story. Good visual stories balance all the different parts to ensure they fit together. It's worth the effort because doing so can significantly, and positively, affect audience perception and expectation. If you have elements of the visual story that are out of alignment with the rest then the message your audience receives may be that you don't really know where you are going.