Storytelling

We create stories (and songs) together

2012-03-19T20:00:50Z

Some of my first musical memories are from Pete Seeger's children's concerts in New York many years ago, where I screamed "Abiyoyo" with an auditorium full of kids. If you don't know his name, just Google it. You'll find him described as America's best-loved folksinger and a lot of other superlatives.

One of the things that's special about a Pete Seeger concert is the way he introduces each song with a story. He talks about where he heard it or how he thought up the tune or why the lyrics are important to him. His delivery is so understated that it's easy to miss what great stories they are. At a recent concert I could feel the whole audience holding their breath through each story, waiting for the moment when they could connect the story to the song he was about to sing. Sometimes he timed it perfectly: the pieces didn't fall into place until the first banjo note. And we all exhaled the opening lyrics with him.

That's the other thing that's special about a Pete Seeger concert. He can get everyone in the room to come together in song, even those of us who rarely sing outside of the shower. Pete's getting older and doesn't have much of a voice left. But all he needed to do is remind us of the story, give us the tune, and let us sing the song. He makes music into a participatory act of community by acting less like a performer and more like a facilitator or leader.

Peggy Seeger, Pete's sister and a singer-songwriter in her own right, was there, too. Leading an folk song, Dear Old Buffalo Boy, she made us get into character. The song is a conversation, alternating verses between a man and a woman. The first time we sang it just fine, but without much emotion. Then, she told the audience about the context of the song and the social setting behind the humor. With a character -- a persona -- to imagine, the song got funnier, deeper, more alive, and so did our singing.

The whole concert was a great example of how we create stories (and songs) together.

Empathy and connection

2012-02-26T15:38:12Z

What's the difference between a scenario and a story?

I've always thought those sorts of definitions are trick questions, especially when we are struggling to find words to match our ideas. Perhaps it's inevitable that we sometimes use the same word in different ways...and different words to mean the same thing.

If we look at three ways of creating stories in UX today, we can see a difference in both the quality of the story and what its value is.

Lets start with Agile user stories. The classic form is something like:

As a [role] I can [do something] so that [benefit]

Like many story forms in designing technology, the goal of these stories is to find the simplest way to express a requirement. We want to know who, what, and why, so that our design (and development) work can be grounded in that context.

Many of the abstract modeling tools -- swimlanes, flow diagrams - use case diagrams - have the same goal: to strip away the casual differences and show the underlying core.

The next type of story is what I would call a scenario. They describe the sequence of events, adding how to the story. Whether they are storyboards that walk through an interaction, a narrative use case, or any other form, their focus is on the plot. They answer the question, "What happened?" or "What will happen?"

Finally, we can add rich detail that lets us understand the human perspective and response. Imagery, emotion, contextual details, and deeper motivations all take us into the point of view of the characters. These stories are often tied to personas, building on the demographic and behavioral data they embody.

When we include not just the basics of who, what, why, and how, but also the rich texture of the experience, we have created a story that is both useful and helps us connect to the people who will use the products we create.

That's the power of story.

Power of Story - UX Hong Kong

View more presentations from Whitney Quesenbery

If you'd like to know more, I'm giving a full-day workshop on how to use stories and personas to design with users in mind.

Using Personas and Storytelling Effectively

May 7, 2012
American Institute of Architects
Washington DC

Story-tastic. An example from scientific research.

2011-06-03T20:17:52Z

One of the best things about teaching workshops is getting to hear stories from so many people. This one is from Francis Rowland, describing his excitement in finding stories "in the wild."

This morning, a friend in the bioscience research institute next door to where I work made some time for me to come over and do a bit of ethnography. It was a lot of observation, with some prompting and questions from me - straight contextual enquiry.
I am really keen to learn more about the context within which lab-based scientists like her use some of the online tools and other pieces of software produced by institutes like the one where I work.

One of the major design problems in my work is the wide range of vernaculars and concepts that exist between and amongst different kinds of biologists, even when they work on the same topic. If we present data and info for one type, another type just doesn't get it at all.

So after learning more about the context in which my friend uses online applications and the like, I asked her about this communication issue.

What it boiled down to is stories.

She told me that, just as she had just done with me, she would tell a collaborator a story about her research - the findings, the data, the clues, the leads, the implications...

This would frame the research from her perspective. The collaborator can obviously interact with that "story", and help to build it into something that they share. It isn't just that the data or the research can tell a story about some wider scientific subject. The scientists have to use stories so that they can communicate.

Just the sort of thing that you described in your workshop, of course, Whitney! But it was exciting to see it being portrayed as exactly that without any prompting from me.

UX Story Cards

2011-06-01T20:39:44Z

Looking for a handy pocket guide to crafting stories for user experience?

We've created UX Story Cards to help you get started using stories or sharpen your story skills. The cards are based on the book, especially chapters 11-15. Six groups of cards ask questions and offer suggestions for elements to include in your story:

Story Basics. Start by answering the basic questions. Who, what, when, where, why, how.

Purpose. Stories help drive UX work in several ways. Think about why you are telling the story.

Story Context. Ground the story in a specific place and time.

Imagery. Give the story emotional resonance.

Structure. Give the story a shape to help the audience fill in the blanks.

Format. There are many ways to tell a story. In writing or orally. In reports, presentations, elevators. With images or as comics.

Get your UX Story Cards

Workshop on Storytelling in UX - Atlanta, April 28

2011-03-01T01:22:51Z

Learn how to collect, create, and use stories to make your UX work richer
A full day, practical workshop with Whitney Quesenbery
April 28, 2011 - Atlanta

User experience is full of stories: personas, task analysis, design scenarios and even usability testing tasks. The techniques of storytelling can help you explore user research or develop design ideas that make emotional connections to users. You might be surprised at how many different ways you can use stories in your UX work to make it more persuasive and compelling.

In this day-long workshop, Whitney Quesenbery, author of Storytelling for User Experience will lead you in a deep dive into all the ways you can put storytelling to work for you, and lots of hands-on practice. Come learn how to collect, create, and use stories to make your UX work richer.

Workshop details

Want to hear a story?

2011-01-11T23:35:15Z

To start the new year, a few places where you can go for stories for and about business.

Once upon a venture. Stories of entrepreneurs and how they started their business. The topics range from pickles to film production studios, told in stories that are real, yet fun; serious yet funny. These are not lectures on tape; they are the real words of the not-so-famous man or woman who offers you good solid tips from the gut. Podcast or listen online. (Twitter @camelgraph)

Free Range Thinking - A newsletter from the Goodman Center aimed at public interest communicators. Their slogan is that they help "do-gooders do better." (Twitter @goodmancenter)

The Reinvention Summit was the brainchild of Michael Margolis of GetStoried. All the presentations, focused on personal reinvention, are still available online (for a fee). (Twitter @getstoried)

The Moth StorySLAM is stories told live, with no notes. There are live events in New York, Chicago, Detroit and LA, plus a podcast of the best stories of the year. (Twitter @mothstories)

London - February 16. Storytelling for Business Leaders Workshop. Shawn Callahan, one of the leaders in the business storytelling community, teaches this workshop for anyone wanting to improve their ability to find and tell their own stories within a business context - about your business or as a company leader. (Twitter: Forever Blue. Any Tuesday evening in Boston, you can drop by Out of the Blue Gallery in Cambridge and join Kevin, Laura Packer, and other storytellers from the area. (Twitter: @storylaura)

If you are looking for storytelling events near you, the National Storytelling Network is a good place to start.

Your stories

2010-10-24T19:12:20Z

We've been talking to a lot of people about stories at UX Book Clubs. One of the best things about those events is the way people use stories to explain their ideas. As we say in the book, talking about stories makes people think of stories to tell.

We'd like to hear some of those stories in more detail, so this is an open invitation to share your thoughts about ways of creating and communicating stories as part of your UX work.

What's a juicy story?

2010-09-11T14:29:49Z

One of the perennial questions in UX is how we can get our colleagues to listen to us. To our ideas. To user research that contradicts firmly-held beliefs. To reports of subtle problems that add up to a lousy experience. To new ways of thinking about a design problem. Stories can help. Instead of arguing, they put ideas into an active context, making them less abstract.

Those stories become juicy when they engage the imagination.

A good user story gives you a character, an action and a goal.

A good scenario fills in the plot and motivations.

A juicy story adds imagery - sensory, emotional, contextual details.

They are all forms of story, of course. But it's the details that create the emotional connection. That connection lets us imagine the world of the story and understand the experience it encompasses. And when that happens, we can create great user experiences.

Want to know more about how to create a juicy story? We have a new article at UXmatters: Juicy Stories Sell Ideas.

Or, you can get the UIE Virtual Seminar Storytelling for UX (How stories communicate, explore, persuade, and inspire)

Has a story every carried the day for you? Tell us about your juicy stories.

Storytelling in depth - 2 workshops

2010-08-09T13:56:37Z

Two opportunities to dive in to the practice of storytelling for UX coming up in the Boston Area:

Crafting Stories for Better Design - half-day workshop at UPA Boston

In April, Whitney Quesenbery and Kevin Brooks released their book, Storytelling for User Experience. In June, they gave an overview talk of the same title at the Mini-UPA Conference, with attendees clamoring for more. So back by popular demand, Whitney and Kevin return to UPA Boston to teach an in-depth, hands-on workshop for those interested in learning how to craft their own user experience stories.

Stories are an effective way to collect, analyze and share qualitative information from user research, spark design imagination and help us create usable products. We all tell stories all the time, but to craft a story for a particular audience, for a particular reason and effect, requires some instruction and modeling, a reasonable amount of practice, and a lot of listening.

In this half day workshop, participants will learn the mechanics of storytelling as it applies to oral and written presentation through instruction, modeling and practice. There will be a number of small and larger group exercises that reinforce introduced concepts and allow participants to practice telling UX stories in a safe atmosphere of constructive critique. Participants are encouraged to bring their own UX story material to develop in the workshop, with the understanding that their stories will be shared with the workshop public.

When: Saturday, August 28, 2010
Instructors: Whitney Quesenbery and Kevin Brooks
Registration: Boston UPA website - http://www.upaboston.org/

Practical Storytelling: Crafting and Telling Stories for UX and Life - 2 day course in the Bentley College Certificate Program

Storytelling is the art of crafting and presenting life and all of its varied experiences in enjoyable, rational chunks that invite the audience to feel as much as think. As a part of user experience design, stories serve to ground the work in a real context. They are an effective way to collect, analyze and share qualitative information from user research, spark design imagination and help us create usable products. But most importantly, they help keep people at the center of the work. However a UX project is started, in the end it will be used by people. Stories connect what we know about those people (the users) to the design process, even if the users can't be part of the team.

In this course, students will learn to craft and present oral stories for UX work or from material in their personal lives. They will learn the mechanics of the craft, which includes listening skills, guiding the audience, story structures, and managing the relationships between the teller, the story and the audience.

When: Saturday, August 28, 2010
Instructor: Kevin Brooks
Registration: Bentley College - http://www.bentley.edu/ux-certificate/index.cfm

Storytelling for UX: a UIE Virtual Seminar

2010-07-23T12:00:00Z

Registration is open for my UIE Virtual Seminar on August 5th.

I'll talk a little bit about the role that stories can play in your work and how they can help you present your design ideas in a more compelling way. When you tell your story well, you'll get buy-in for the design and you'll have everyone on the same page. I'll use some new case studies that provide solid examples of how this can work and examples of how simple an effective story can be.

There's a full description of the Storytelling for UX Virtual Seminar on the UIE site along with registration information. Use code WHITNEY when you register to get lifetime access to the recording.

Here's a short preview of what I'll cover:

Storytelling for UX - UIE Virtual Seminar - Preview

View more webinars from Whitney Quesenbery and Kevin Brooks.

Stories that persuade

2010-07-20T13:04:18Z

A tweet from Karen Bachmann led me to an article in The Boston Globe, "How facts backfire." It says:

Facts don't necessarily have the power to change our minds. In fact, quite the opposite. In a series of studies in 2005 and 2006, researchers at the University of Michigan found that when misinformed people, particularly political partisans, were exposed to corrected facts in news stories, they rarely changed their minds. In fact, they often became even more strongly set in their beliefs.

If you've ever been in the middle of a a design debate, you might recognize this effect. The more the team argues, the more everyone is convinced of their own position, so the people with control over the next step tend to win by default. Pretty discouraging to a UX-er with strong user data to back up their "opinion."

The problem isn't the ideas. It's the way you're presenting them: head on, fact vs. fact and diagram vs. diagram.

What's the solution: try a story instead. Steve Denning suggests a new persona to try if you want to persuade:

Let us call the person who converses in this mode, homo narrans -- a person who combines story-telling and analysis in a discourse that is rational, lively, imaginative, open to dialogue, entertaining and persuasive. This is the kind of person we would like to have at our dinner tables, and with whom we would be willing to discuss even the most difficult and controversial of topics. It is the sort of the person we might like to have as a friend and companion. It is the sort of person we would listen to, since conversing with homo narrans might well lead to the mutual discovery of truth.

Next time you have the facts on your side, craft them into a story. See if it doesn't work better than head-on argument.

Stories that sell

2010-07-15T13:21:06Z

Case studies. Customer stories. According to Casey Hibbard, they:

"...serve a role that no other promotional tools truly fill by accomplishing three key purposes at once: credibility, education, and validation... Customer stories complement all other communications and bridge a gap between an organization and its prospective customers."

If you are looking for ways to sell your UX services (and who isn't these days), Casey's blog, Stories That Sell, is full of tips and tools for creating a compelling story.

1 hour of fame

2010-07-12T13:54:26Z

Thursday, 2:58pm ET, we got an email from Slideshare: "Your presentation is being tweeted more than any other document on SlideShare right now." That gave us one hour of fame on the home page for our presentation from UPA Boston.

Storytelling your way to a better user experience - UPA Boston

Getting at the vision thing

2010-07-04T23:57:38Z

Whether you are running a company, a team, a product or a project, you've probably spent some time thinking about vision. We're often so preoccupied with day-to-day tactics that it can be hard to step back.

Thaler Pekar works with philanthropic organizations, using stories to help them find, develop, and share the stories and organizational narratives that rally critical support.

In Values as Visuals on the PhilanTopic blog, she describes using a deck of visual images to "foster reflection, elicit stories, and move into collaborative problem solving." The article describes several different tools and how organizations use them. Maybe one of them will be the key to finding the story for your UX group.

ePUB version ... hooray!

2010-06-30T18:25:44Z

I'm really excited that there's now an ePUB version of the book. Not only will it work on iPhone and iPad, but I'm running it on Aldiko, a reader for Android. The reading experience is pretty good. The illustrations look OK, search works and all the internal structural links do what I'd expect. You can see a couple of photos on Flickr.

Even more exciting, ePUB is a format that can be accessible. I wish I could just say "This is an accessible version!" but I don't have a good way to test it. Anyone know the answer?