Designers use storytelling to get insight into users, build empathy and reach them emotionally. Designers create personas to represent target users and add conflict to stories that reflect their user journeys and problems. Crafting stories, designers can better understand what users want from a solution.
See why users love stories.
Good stories always captivate audiences. In user experience (UX) design, you use storytelling throughout the design process to ensure that all work focuses on the users’ needs and the value you want to give those users. After completing design research to understand your users’ needs and desires, you use your insights to tell a story about who your users are, what they need and how you’ll provide that. This story makes it easy for everyone involved in the project to empathize with the users and ensure their work matches the story. Having a story throughout your project means marketing the design at the end of the design process is also straightforward, as you already know exactly which story to tell to show how your product provides value.
“People think that stories are shaped by people. In fact, it’s the other way around.”
—Terry Pratchett, Famous fantasy author
The renowned philosopher Aristotle wrote extensively on storytelling. His formula is a checklist for what your stories should contain.
Plot – What are users trying to achieve/overcome?
Character – Who are the users: not just demographically, but what insights do you need to understand what they (and their needs) are truly like?
Theme – How can you establish a trustworthy presence to them and still set yourself apart from competitors? How will you reflect the overall obstacles users must overcome?
Dialogue/Diction – What will your design say to users, and how? Does a formal/informal tone match their expectations? How much text is appropriate?
Melody – How will the overall design pattern appear pleasant and predictable to users, moving them emotionally?
Décor – How will you present everything so the graphics match the setting the users can sense? Would a classic design or stylized, niche layout meet their expectations?
Spectacle – How can you make your design outstanding so users will remember it?
You can use storytelling in your design process to present your user research results in an engaging way and create empathy with your target users. This will help you steer the design process and keep it user-centric. Here’s what you can do:
Define your target users with personas – to envision users’ likely experiences and gain empathic insights. Personas are based on user research but tell a story about your insights. An example persona might be “Rick,” a 47-year-old manager struggling with his work–family-life balance. He even works on his train commutes. Feeling drained, he wants better control of his life.
Create a plot with conflict – to make the personas heroes and envision how they can overcome specific problems using your design. Make this a mapped-out journey or storyboard with each persona’s aim/s clearly defined. E.g.:
Rick discovers your (yet-to-be-designed) time-management app online. He downloads it and completes your questionnaire about work commitments, family, outgoings, etc.
He starts using your app, letting it collect data from his phone and fitness tracker about time on various tasks/activities, stress levels, alertness, etc.
After a week, your app charts his tasks and activities, including sleep, heart-rate data, etc.
Tapping a phone tab, Rick sees time-management suggestions on how to become more productive, well-rested, etc.
He can continue or suspend monitoring (if on holiday/vacation or otherwise occupied).
Give your design the supporting role – show it improving your persona’s/user’s life and how easy it is to use. For example, consider how many steps Rick needs to use your app and if voice-controlled devices at home might influence its suggestions.
Work with the setting –When and where users use your design is vital for building empathy. For Rick, it’s the home, train and workplace. But what about (e.g.) busy professionals working from home?
Tailor the look/feel – Your design’s appearance is vital regardless of its functional benefits, so design the most appropriate (e.g.) layout, colors, and typography. For example, Rick prioritizes an at-a-glance, easy-to-use design, but soothing colors complement larger fonts, etc.
Always Consider
The What – The user problem/s you define: E.g., They work too much overtime because of…? Budgeting problems at home?
The Who – The users themselves, envisioned through personas. This includes influential people in the main user’s/persona’s story. You can identify them using customer journey maps.
The How – Your story arc, with a beginning, middle and end. From introducing the player/s at the beginning, you build towards their biggest problems (which many factors can affect) and finish with the happy ending your design delivers.
Your story narratives are “magic mirrors”—proving fine-tuned empathy and connection with users’ values—where users discover how to make their own happy endings.
Ultimately, your design should predict your target users’ actions at every level possible. Testing will help confirm how successful it is.
Take our course featuring storytelling An Introduction to Interaction Design for Usability
Explore place-based storytelling in our course UX Design for Augmented Reality.
Read an in-depth, example-rich treatise on storytelling Storytelling for User Experience.
Discover storytelling’s importance for apps in The Art Of Storytelling Around An App — Smashing Magazine.
Read UX designer and product strategist Sarah Doody on the value of storytelling Why We Need Product Storytellers At The Heart Of Product & Technology – Sarah Doody.
Find helpful insights about visual storytelling in Visual storytelling for UI-UX design with examples.
Here’s the entire UX literature on Storytelling by the Interaction Design Foundation, collated in one place:
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