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How to turn “UX storytelling” from buzzword to powerful tool
Practical advice, not vague analogies, on how to use UX Storytelling
UX storytelling is a powerful tool for communication, yet most of the time, it is a buzzword on a resume.
As a result, most people don’t know how to do it or think you can’t apply it to your weekly design process. You do it when you’re finally done with a project and have some spare time 3 months later.
Except that’s not the case. UX Storytelling is often most helpful while working on a project, in research presentations, talking with stakeholders, or in design meetings.
It’s much simpler than you realize to tell a UX story because UX only ever tells a single story.
UX Stories are only ever about one thing: change
Despite popular belief, you do not need any storytelling (or creative writing) experience to tell a good UX story. That’s because, in many ways, UX stories are more like copywriting than fiction writing.
Every story you tell about UX is centered around one thing: user behavior change.
Whether you’re telling the story of problematic user behavior, that you hope to change with design recommendations, or user behavior you want to utilize to design a new feature, everything centered on change.
As a result, there’s no need to learn traditional storytelling structures like:
- The Hero’s Journey
- Story Spline
- Story Mountain
- Freytag’s Pyramid
- etc.
Instead, we can use Jeff White’s 3-part Story framework, which he’s used to present to Jeff Bezos (and other Amazon executives) 20+ times.
In his mind, there are only three parts to a UX story:
- Context: What are we designing, and why do we have to change?
- Struggle: How are users struggling, and what is the impact?
