Story cubes are physical or digital dice bearing images rather than numbers. When rolled, the random combination of images serves as a generative prompt for storytelling, scenario creation, or lateral thinking. In design workshops, story cubes are used as a creative warm-up, as a technique for generating unexpected user scenarios, or as a way to break the cognitive fixation that sets in after a team has been discussing the same design problem for too long. The randomness is the point. It forces the brain to make connections it would not choose on its own.
Story Cubes
Rolling random images to spark unexpected creative connections
A
Designers Academy
26 August 2025 · 3 min read
UXMethods
In brief
Story cubes are dice with images that, when rolled, generate random visual prompts to spark creativity, break cognitive fixation, and create unexpected ideas for design challenges.
