The complexity of telling stories in UX
UX is a beautiful discipline with a broad action ratio. Despite this range, we tend to focus only on delivering products, overlooking a hidden skill: telling stories.
Sometimes, As a UX mentor, I get a lot of portfolio reviews from young designers keen to improve how they build and show their design cases. These sessions are beautiful to accomplish with them. Still, communication skill is sometimes missing, which is sad, especially if you are pursuing growth as a designer in a new job.
I’ve had the pleasure of seeing many fantastic design solutions and crafting. Still, even though I’m delighted to see great designs and ways of working, happiness is incomplete because I miss a good story behind these cases. When I started seeing this pattern in most designers, I wondered: Should stories be part of the design process? Furthermore, do we have more types of stories in the UX world? Beyond what we are already familiar with? (instructions, definitions, concepts, flows, user tests, etc.)
Conversely, many designers have also approached me for advice on whether they were in a suitable workplace. Regarding this point, we always get to the same point: Express your expectations about what makes you happy, what can make you a better professional, and, most importantly, what may steal your spirit. Bottom line: Tell them who you are at your best and your lowest. Depending on this, you can thrive or not in a work environment. This issue is also a communication problem, not from a technical perspective, but from a human side.
Interestingly, these communication challenges represent two perfectly delineated sides: human and technical, which curiously are the areas of influence of UX.
When talking about stories in UX, we think about strategic and complex presentations for stakeholders, the usage of user journeys to express a behavior, or some fun activity where we must capture the audience’s attention through a motivational or funny tale.
These scenarios can be scarce at times because the reality is that we need to tell stories daily in the UX world. I identify two kinds of stories in which we should master this powerful skill every day:
1. The complex story of a solution
This type of story is part of the technical side of our profession. As UX is, among other things, about effectiveness, we may need technicalities to enlighten a conversation. It evidences good presentation skills and knowledge and might be mandatory for some roles. But be careful with keeping the tech part only; depending on your audience, it might not be enough.
To show a product, we don’t have to become Shakespeare to tell how we solved a challenge. But if you take the time to articulate well some of the points of the presentation, you will make a difference.
Vinh Giang says it ideally in the following TikTok video. I’ll keep one phrase that resumes everything in this kind of story:
“We are only as good as we can communicate.”
Sometimes, the work doesn’t speak for itself, as the famous saying goes. Occasionally, we must ensure our solutions get the proper understanding among an audience. As UXers, we move in an extensive range of knowledge, contexts, roles, and seniorities, so we must keep that in mind when discussing something.
I find four variations within the stories of a solution: a compelling pitch, a step-step presentation, a friendly tale, and a storyless solution.
Compelling pitch
Initially intended for high commands in an area or company, usually within a short timeframe. The primary purpose of this story is to show results straight to the point. Show the need, results, possible projections, and next steps. This type of presentation is a daily routine for designers in a high management position, especially if the conversation goes to a superior.
As there is tons of information regarding this topic, I am sharing some articles to help you dive deep into this information.
Design communication is a critical skill / Kazden Cattapan.
Communication Skills for a UX Designer
The Art of Effective Communication
The step-step presentation
This story is prevalent in portfolio speeches as a die-hard habit; as I pointed out, it happens when young designers present design cases, especially in job interviews or looking for feedback. Is this wrong? Of course not, but understanding the essence of UX, Shouldn’t we communicate a solution as simply and closely as possible? I’m not saying we should avoid details or processes; however, adding some narrative to the case will make it more robust and personal. Not just some cold product steps sequence.
I advise young designers to embrace a portfolio as a personal brand. Be confident of talking about the solution as something you will tell a friend where you might say all the learnings, experiences, and challenges you had through the process. It is all about your perspective.
A friendly tale
On the other side of complexity, we have communication challenges where we must creatively illustrate a point or discussion. The primary purpose of this story is to engage with the audience. Intended for people outside of the UX world, peers from another department, or users, the friendly stories are taken step by step, showing a metaphor as the primary story vehicle, with lots of examples, guidelines, and even questions for the audience to ensure the argument is well understood.
Friendly stories are crucial to selling a new product, showing an improvement, or illustrating a process or point of view; daily life examples are practical due to the connection with the audience. Part of the success of an idea is how you sell it.
The storyless solutions
It is not a story, but the absence of it. This part of the story of the solution is sometimes a mistake we often make and has the particularity of creating a waste of time and money in the future. In this case, we decide to make huge moves without telling a story, or at least consider it, assuming users or someone else will understand the solution as we do. Over time, rework and wear may be evident.
2. The complex story of you as a UXer
It is common to think that stories are just for UX solutions, but we all have stories to tell from the human side. Before any result, we are people. Human connections and behavior are the core of UX, so having conversations in this aspect is natural, especially if it is about yourself. Sometimes, we need to “UX” ourselves from time to time.
Understanding users for any purpose, whether through a user test or behavior analysis, is beautiful. We develop a complete report of how people behave, their interests, and their needs to transform it into an effective interaction or service. But let me ask you something: have you ever thought to use this for yourself? UX is not only for a job, my friend; it is for living also.
Your story as a role
When I hear some discontent from designers related to their jobs or some work relationships, my recommendation is simple (debatable, of course):
- Try to describe yourself as a professional (don’t skip details).
- Please list what you like to do to increase your performance as a professional (keep it as feasible as possible).
- On the opposite of this, create a list of the items you “hate” to do that will nullify your potential (don’t skip details).
This simple exercise creates your persona and will provide a clear understanding of your boundaries and opportunities (there are tons of artifacts to do this, like the SWOT analysis). The outcome is to have a complete story of you as a professional to eventually have an honest conversation with the people involved and set clear expectations or action items.
Your story as a person
Part of your success as a professional is understanding yourself as a unique being and knowing your weaknesses and strengths (again, this is all UX). What are your skills as a person? Have you ever thought about this?
Once you have this picture of yourself, it will be a lot easier to choose wisely your options in your life, like whether you want to create a business or if it is your mission to help others build better products in companies. Part of the frustration people often face is not knowing the workplace that matches their personality or skills.
Knowing this story of you is vital, the most crucial story to tell in your life. For this part, I don’t have an artifact to follow or process; only this final reflection I consider fundamental when growing as a professional.
My takeaway from this?
UX is more human than you think, and one of the biggest mistakes is to pretend it is just technicalities and focus our career on telling stories of solutions, although they are vital. This profession’s natural beauty is creating and understanding the perfect balance between technology and the human side (not only from a product user perspective but also from us).
Most of our formation as designers relies on being practical, which is true, but from time to time, we create an imbalance and forget to acknowledge all the complexities that require being a person. Next time, you need to present your outstanding work, think about building bridges instead of walls, and the next time you feel overwhelmed with your job, think about using all the knowledge to get through the situation. See? It is all about balance, tech, and humans.
As with other experiences, this is only one of the many #ShortStoriesOfMyLifeAsDesigner.
