Storytelling for User Experience. Crafting Stories for Better Design

Comics and cartoons are gaining in popularity as a way to tell a story or share a design idea.

a portrait, not just a picture

I’ll always tell you the truth,” it’s a safe bet that by the end of the movie that character will either lie or be heavily conflicted about the virtues of the truth or the occasional inconveniences of telling the truth.

Storytelling is one of the oldest art forms.

The more you tell a story, the better the story becomes, and the more comfortable the teller becomes at telling it. Also, the more you tell a story, the more you can subtly (or not-so-subtly) adapt it to new audiences and situations.

In both cases, your goal isn’t just to write (or tell) a great story, but to communicate something to other people.

When you create a story, you must consider the distance between the audience and the context of the story. How far will the audience have to travel in their imaginations to understand the details of the story and the motivations of the characters?

There are many versions of the story; it is altered each time Denning tells it, as he adds and subtracts details to suit his audience. For example, if he tells the story to healthcare workers, he might include the specific information that the health worker in Zambia actually looked up. People interested in knowledge management or Web design might want details about how the health worker knew about the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention or how he located the information on its site. These changes to the basic story help the audience connect to it and, more importantly, give them a context in which they can make the story their own.

You can also ask the participants to recall the last time they were on a site like yours. Or the last time they faced a situation similar to one you want to test

Start from a general story, but customize it with information you gather from each participant.