How to storyboard a Lifeology course

For each Lifeology course, we create a storyboard where text, visual ideas and sketches come together. The storyboard is the blueprint for the visuals of the course.

A storyboard is a graphic organizer that shows visual notes and sketches in sequence. It helps with getting ideas on paper fast. Storyboards are useful visual starting points and thinking tools.

“The storyboard is so valuable because you see an overview of the project, like a blueprint for what it will look like, and—artistically—it shows you what sort of balance you have.”

—Anna Doherty, Artist.

Our storyboard template lays out the course narrative in a single chronological view so collaborators can make descriptive notes and artists can insert preliminary sketches.

You can use our template, find a generic one online or make one using a blank piece of paper divided into two columns (“text” and “visuals”) with a place for notes.

At what point should you start storyboarding? You can start once the final course script is written. However, for the best results, we recommend bringing your team’s artist in as early as possible.

An artist is a visual storyteller who can help shape your course script to maximize the value of both the text and the visuals. They can help create a better visual flow and help you pare down your text.

Visualizing a course before it's finished helps avoid potential problems with flow and allows for team feedback before the artist creates final drawings. Continue to learn more!

Meet Doryan. He’s just started work on a new Lifeology course with a remote patient education team. He’s about to attend a kick-off meeting and is excited to make new connections.

Doryan wants to know more about the course objectives, tone, intended audience and overall content. “Who is this course for?” He’s ready to start thinking about visual strategies to engage the audience.

The team lead, Sarah, explains that the course is for an audience that has been diagnosed with early breast cancer. She also discusses the characters in the course.

Characters help bring a story to life. Doryan asks the team to describe in words what the characters look like. They discuss the main character, her friends and family and home life.

This will help Doryan render drawings. He makes a mental note to create a character vision board and work on character sketches for the next meeting.

“It’s a good thing I inserted the card script onto the storyboard,” thinks Paige, the writer. She begins to record the team’s ideas about the characters on the shared storyboard document.

Sarah begins to read aloud the card script. The team discusses the script sequence. They think about how each card relates to the next and how the visuals will progress chronologically.

“It’s a bit like filmmaking,” says Doryan. “We can focus on parts of the card script that work together in sequence first, and leave things like transition cards towards the end. I do that in my sketching.”

They continue to record new ideas and agree that Doryan will finalize the storyboard notes and begin preliminary sketches before the next meeting. They are in good hands because Doryan is an expert visual storyteller!

After the meeting, Doryan uses the storyboard to make visual notes or describe what he will draw for each card. He thinks of each card as a chance to show a new angle or emphasize a point.

He looks for visual hooks in Paige’s writing. There is one card in particular where he cannot find a hook, so he leaves a comment asking Paige for more information.

Paige has an open mind and isn’t too attached to her work. She’s open to revising the card text or even combining it with another card.

Having an artist visualize the text helps Paige and the rest of the team develop new ideas and ways to communicate scientific concepts.

Meanwhile, Doryan begins sketching. He uses line drawing to explain the type of poses and scenes he will use in the final drawings. He sees the characters as actors and pays attention to their line of action.

He uses directional arrows in some sketches to communicate dynamic movement to the team. He thinks about ways he can pull the audience into the visuals and opts for a variety of composition, scale and depth.

At the next meeting, Doryan presents drawings of the characters, a color palette, a fully rendered illustration and storyboard sketches. He walks the team through the storyboard and asks for feedback.

The course is starting to look coherent and interesting. The team leaves comments on the storyboard with suggested changes. Doryan will adapt some sketches and send them for review.

Using a storyboard allows for iterations of sketches before committing to final illustrations. The team approves the new sketches and Doryan gets ready to create the final illustrations!

Continue to read some more storyboard team tips!

Writer Tip: Use visual notes to communicate any visual ideas you have while drafting the script. You can also wait until the first draft of the course is written to read through and add visual notes.

Team Tip: Use a team video conference to brainstorm visual notes together. Make sure to use a designated note-taker to record ideas during the meeting. This means you can read through later and continue to add to the notes.

Can’t meet in real-time? Ask the artist to read through the script and invite them to leave visual notes in a collaborative document. Make sure to use “track changes” or use a commenting feature.

Artist Tip: Lifeology courses have the option to include animated GIFs. Communicate any GIF you might create through notes detailing the movement. Simple looping GIFs work best.

If during the storyboarding process either party feels unsatisfied with the collaboration, don’t be afraid to switch gears. This is best done earlier than later—this is why visual notes are an important part of the process.