Remember when you were a kid and you read picture books? They were mostly pictures and not much text. It was pretty easy, most of the time, to figure out the meaning of the words simply by looking at the pictures. Then as you got older the pictures in the books you read went away and you used your imagination instead. You may have even discussed some of you imaginings with some of your schoolmates and found that there were differences in what you and the other students imagined.

Storyboards for interactive training are more like picture books than books without pictures. You should not have to use your imagination to figure out what a storyboard is telling you. In fact, using your imagination could be dangerous for developers and clients alike, as no two people “imagine” the same thing.

The moral of this story is that storyboards play a very important role in designing and developing interactive training tools and are the primary communication tool for all involved. Consequently, there is a dilemma; how do you create storyboards that don’t require imagination to use and don’t require drawing skills, and can be created in the most efficient way (usually electronically) so that they can be viewed by everyone involved and kept up-to-date? Well, that’s the story.

First, we’ll cover what storyboards are and what roles they play in the design and development process. Then we’ll cover what types of storyboards you need, what their important components are, and what support information you may need to use them efficiently and effectively. Finally, we’ll cover some of the ways to create storyboards.