Learn to Tell a User Story in Singapore

What is User story?

We all know that UX is the abbreviation of User Experience. UX has become the core competence in the market. Every company values UX a lot. Nielsen Norman Group gives the definition that a User story is an account of events from the user’s perspective; the events in the story show the evolution of an experience. A successfully crafted story should be compelling and evoke emotion, transcending culture and expertise. It can describe a current, as-is situation, or be set in the future.

Why we need to tell a User Story?

The user story from a UX point of view is a discrete piece of functionality or user goal that you will have identified through your user research. This will include among others inputs from your personas, user journeys and even your information architecture.

As such, you will normally create your first user stories after your initial research phase is complete. If you are working in Agile you can expect to help write user stories throughout the project as you work through the various iterations.

How to create a User Story?

The user story is extremely easy to create once you have an idea. I would suggest three ways:

• On paper cards – useful if you wish to run a planning workshop or get an idea how to group the stories.
• In a spreadsheet – put your user stories in a spreadsheet if you have a very large number, or wish to manipulate them easily (for example by different priorities).
• Online – online tools like Trello can be useful for helping create and organise your user stories and distributing them to your team and clients.

Depending on the level of detail in your user stories it may be beneficial to get a developer or business analyst to help you. This is because you may need to create stories for things such as back-end requirements.

For example, a user story in which the user wants to see the homepage may be dependant on having a database set up on the back end. This is where you start getting into the realms of actually building a product, so be sure that you need to go to this level of detail.

What should a user story contain?

As a user I want to be able to <functionality/goal> so that <motivation/reason>

A user story template commonly is as follows: As a certain user role, I want to realize a certain goal so that I can get this kind of benefit. You should stand at the foot of the real user to create a valuable story.

The structure and components of user-experience stories are not far removed from fairy tales, classical theatre, or box-office films. According to Aristotle, the successful drama is composed of six primary elements: plot, character, thought, diction, music, and spectacle. These elements remain essential to modern day’s storytelling and create the infrastructure for the components mentioned below. (While music is optional in most corporate environments, we recommend a bit of spectacle for your story presentation, maybe in the form of a prop or two.)

A user story has the following components:

• User. Compelling stories must have a clear, fleshed-out main character (or, in some cases, multiple characters), with whom the audience can empathize. Imagine the main character who is hard of hearing. Framing your story from this perspective allows your audience to relate to your user— for example, by considering a parallel visual experience for aspects that would have been only audible.
• User’s goal and motivation. The goal establishes a clear understanding of the task at hand, while the user’s motivation helps the audience see the meaning behind the user’s behaviours and decision making. For instance, in a user story about a teenager, her goal (e.g.,  downloading a new app), is just as valuable as her motivation, which could be social acceptance or making friends.
• Context. Context is the setting (time and place) in which the user story takes place. Providing an environment for the story aids in understanding where the designed experience fits in. This context can also act as the starting point from which the plot can be built — it can be the source of story conflict or obstacles that the character must face before achieving his goal. The right context gives your audience something concrete to buy into. For example, imagine a busy father. If this character is surrounded with contexts such as a barking dog, full hands, and a sick baby, the team can understand the environment that it must design for: chaos, high stress, and little time.
• Plot. A plot describes a series of events along a timeline. Often, these events build tension and crisis as the main character (the user) heads towards the climax in the story.
• Insight. While the previous four components are straightforward, insight is where storytellers must insert their understanding and communicate to the audience the significance of the situation. Insight can become emotionally engaging when the audience senses that something is at stake or that the main character’s core values are disrupted. Insight is often the “aha moment” of the story — the pain point that the team didn’t know existed, but has been uncovered through research, or the design breakthrough that is going to change the user’s future experience.
• Spectacle. Spectacle refers to the visual portion of the story. This could be props, drawn illustrations, or video. The spectacle usually makes the story more memorable and enjoyable and keeps the audience interested and involved.

You can also read the following articles for more information.

Reference 1: UX Stories Communicate Designs

Reference 2: User Stories: As a [UX Designer] I want to [embrace Agile] so that [I can make my projects user-centered]