D652 Design Applications, catalog number DES 3100, is the three CU course in the WGU School of Business design sequence that applies the design foundations using storyboards to visualize design concepts. The shift from the foundations course is from the static to the sequential. A storyboard is not a set of screens; it is an account of what a person is doing, feeling and deciding across time, and that is what the aspects examine.
A storyboard is an argument about behaviour
The commonest weak storyboard in DES 3100 is a series of interface pictures with captions. It shows what the product looks like at six points and says nothing about the person. A storyboard that scores well shows a user with a goal, in a context, encountering something, deciding, acting and ending up somewhere. The interface may barely appear.
That distinction matters because storyboards exist to test whether a concept survives contact with a real sequence of events. Frames that only show success are the second common failure. If nothing goes wrong anywhere in your storyboard, it has not been used to think with. The interesting frames are the ones where the user hesitates, misunderstands, gets interrupted or arrives without the information the design assumed they would have.
The third scored theme is the link back to the foundations. This course applies the earlier material, so justifications should still name principles and user needs. A storyboard with no reasoning attached is a comic strip, and evaluators score the reasoning.
Turning scored aspects into a section plan
Scoring detail lives in your Course of Study rather than the catalog. Count the aspects and use them as headings for the written portion that accompanies your visuals. Each aspect is scored independently against a three point scale and each needs a 2, so a beautifully drawn storyboard with a thin rationale is a returned task.
Point at your frames explicitly. Number them, then refer to them by number when explaining a decision, so an evaluator scoring an aspect can find the evidence without interpreting your intent.
The word budget, worked. Suppose six scored aspects and about 1,600 words of written rationale. Reserve 120 words to name the user and the scenario and 100 to close. That leaves near 1,380, about 230 per aspect. Then take 40 words from each of two descriptive aspects and give 80 to the aspect covering the user's experience across the sequence and the same to the aspect covering design justification. Describing frames is cheap; explaining what the sequence reveals is the scarce material.
A structure that fits a storyboard deliverable
Where your task directions specify a structure, follow theirs. Where they do not, this ordering matches how the aspects tend to be scored.
| Section | What belongs in it | How it gets read |
|---|---|---|
| User and goal | Who this person is in terms of what they are trying to accomplish | Goal stated as an outcome, not as a use of your product |
| Scenario | The situation, including time pressure, location and what else is happening | Context is what makes a storyboard more than a flow diagram |
| The frames | Numbered, each showing a moment with what the user does, thinks and feels | Thought and feeling are what distinguish a storyboard from a wireflow |
| Friction points | The frames where something is difficult, and why | Their absence is the clearest sign the storyboard was not used to think |
| Design responses | What the concept does at each friction point, tied to a principle | The main scored reasoning |
| Alternatives | A different path through the same scenario, and what it traded off | Shows the sequence was explored rather than assumed |
| What to test | The assumptions in the storyboard that would need checking with real users | Naming your own assumptions reads as maturity |
Include at least one frame where the user is not looking at your product at all. The moment before someone reaches for a solution is usually the most informative frame in the whole sequence, and it is the one most often missing.
Evidence craft for visual narrative work
Storyboards are easy to make and easy to make up, so the evidence discipline is about grounding.
- Base the scenario on something observed or reported rather than invented, and say which it was.
- Number every frame and reference the numbers in the text; unlabelled visuals are hard to score.
- Cite the design principles behind each response, as in the foundations course.
- Show emotional state explicitly in the frames or the captions, since it is part of what a storyboard is for.
- Note the constraints of the medium you are designing for, including screen size and input method.
- Use APA in the written portion and credit any assets you did not create.
Write down the assumptions the storyboard is making. Every frame contains at least one belief about how a person will behave, and listing three of them with a note on how you would test each is a short section that satisfies several aspects.
What separates Competent from a submission sent back
Independent scoring keeps returns local, and here they usually hit the rationale rather than the visuals.
- Frames show a person with a goal rather than a product with screens.
- At least one point of genuine friction appears and is analysed.
- Every design response names a principle and the need it serves.
- An alternative path is explored and its trade off stated.
- Assumptions are named along with how they would be tested.
Performance assessment work can be revised and resubmitted with no grade penalty, so a return costs calendar. Terms run six months at a flat rate, and visual work is slow to redo, which makes getting the rationale right on the first pass unusually valuable here.
Six mistakes that cost time in D652
- Screens instead of a story. A storyboard without a person in it is a flow diagram with better drawing.
- A frictionless sequence. If everything works perfectly, the storyboard was decoration rather than a thinking tool.
- No context outside the product. Where the person is and what else they are doing changes what the design must handle.
- Captions that describe the picture. The caption should say what the person is thinking, not what the frame shows.
- Polish before validity. Time spent on rendering is wasted if the sequence itself has not been examined.
- No stated assumptions. Naming them is cheap, and it demonstrates exactly the judgment the course is building.
Choosing which moments to draw
Students routinely lose time in D652 by drawing too many frames and the wrong ones. A storyboard is a selection, and the selection is itself a design decision worth explaining in the rationale.
Six to eight frames is usually enough, and they should be chosen for what they reveal rather than for coverage. The first frame belongs before the product appears, showing the trigger: the moment the person becomes aware they need something. It is the frame that establishes whether your concept is addressing a real occasion.
The middle frames should concentrate on decisions rather than actions. A person tapping through three confirmed steps produces three uninformative frames. A person choosing between two options they do not fully understand produces one frame worth an entire discussion. Draw the choices and summarise the mechanics.
Include one frame where something goes wrong: an interruption, a mistake, a missing piece of information, a moment of doubt. This is where the design either helps or does not, and it is the most useful frame in the sequence for both you and an evaluator.
Finish after the goal rather than at it. What happens once the person has done the thing, whether they know it worked, and whether they are left with anything to do later, is where a great many designs quietly fail. A final frame set fifteen minutes afterwards is often the most revealing one in the whole storyboard.
How support works on this course
Send the rubric from your Course of Study and the task directions. What comes back is aspect mapped: a scenario grounded in something real, frame selection that concentrates on decisions and friction, captions written from the user's perspective, principle based justifications, and a stated list of assumptions to test. Plus a walkthrough so the work is yours to defend.
D652 sits between the foundations course and the prototyping pair, and the storyboard you build here often becomes the basis for what you test later. Terms are six months at a flat rate, so sequencing the design courses closely together saves real time.
Questions students ask about D652
Is D652 the same course as DES 3100?
Does the storyboard have to be drawn by hand?
Can you make the storyboard for me?
Where D652 sits in WGU's programs
The July 2026 catalog places this code in 1 current WGU program. Open a program page for the complete standard path and term positions. The live Degree Plan remains authoritative after transfer credit, substitutions, and mentor planning.
The assessments, one by one
The public catalog does not publish this course's PA/OA identity or task count. WGU Tutors publishes at most one PA manual per course and only from a WGU-controlled public rubric. Until that source exists, PA help begins from the student's real Course of Study and OA support remains preparation only.