Communicating Concepts Through Comics
Thursday, August 17, 10:00-10:45 AM
by Kevin Cheng
"How will people use this feature?"
"How does it integrate with their lives?"
At Yahoo! Local, we've used a number of tools such as requirements documents, personas, user scenarios and storyboards to assist in answering questions like these. However, these tools have yielded mixed and often suboptimal results. For example, requirements and personas were rarely consumed or were interpreted differently between individuals. Traditional storyboards detailing screen by screen progressions created a focus on the interface, rather than the concept.
In one of our upcoming products, we explored a new method of testing and communicating product concepts through the use of comics. Comics are a unique medium between video and static sketches and provide versatility beyond either of the mediums if applied correctly.
During the presentation, Kevin will discuss the advantages that we found comics to have over other methods. In particular, he will discuss how comics can be used to convey subtleties of timing and emphasis and at the same time abstract the details using iconography and art to help the reader relate to the characters and focus on the concepts instead of minute details. Example comics to illustrate each of these areas will be included in the presentation.
Kevin will also go into detail about how this methodology is not only restricted to illustrators and can be utilized by any designer.
About Kevin Cheng
By day, Kevin is a senior interaction designer with Yahoo! Maps and Yahoo! Local. By night, he is the co-creator of OK/Cancel, believed to be one of the top five web comics on usability and design. At Yahoo!, Kevin combined his experiences and introduced the use of comics for conveying new product ideas and concepts. Previous to Yahoo!, he worked as a senior human-computer interaction consultant at Trilogy for clients such as Sun Microsystems, British Airways, SGI, and Principal Financial Group and also contracted with Adaptive Path.
Kevin holds a Masters degree from University College London in Human Computer Interaction and Ergonomics and has presented at IA Summit, South by Southwest Interactive, SIGCHI, UXNet London and Hong Kong UPA. His work in communicating interaction design issues through comics has appeared in numerous textbooks as well as the bimonthly Interactions magazine.