How to create a user experience story

Abstract

Narratives are a tool used in many disciplines. In the area of User Experience Design (UXD), in particular, a storytelling approach can be applied during the whole design process to improve the quality of developed concepts regarding user experience (UX). Furthermore stories support designers in exploring and communicating their new concept ideas. However, the guidelines on how to create a story are either too abstract or do not focus on the experience elements of the interaction. This paper aims at systemizing the storytelling approach in the context of UXD in a ten-step-methodology for story creation. The proposed approach emphasizes on experience-related elements of interaction. The UX story is written by and aims at designers with the scope to communicate UX and reinforce it in product implementation. Further, the approach is systemized in a ten-steps-description with additional form sheets in order to support the application by designers from various backgrounds. In future projects a systematic evaluation of the tools introduced would validate the observed positive outcomes of applying storytelling in UX projects. © 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.