Dedication

How to Use This Book

• Who Should Read This Book?
• What's in This Book?
• What Comes with This Book?

Frequently Asked Questions

Foreword

CHAPTER 1: Why Stories?

• What is a story?
• There are many types of stories in UX design
• More work? Not really!
• More reading
• Summary

CHAPTER 2: How UX Stories Work

• Stories are more than just narrative
• Stories have many roles in user experience design
• Maybe you're not convinced
• Summary

CHAPTER 3: Stories Start with Listening (and Observing)

• UX design requires good listening skills
• Listening and observing leads to better understanding
• Being listened to is addictive
• Learn to be a good listener
• Teach your team to listen
• More reading
• Summary

CHAPTER 4: The Ethics of Stories

• Good research ethics - good storytelling
• Professional societies give us relevant ethics for stories
• Acknowledge your own influence
• Tell the story accurately
• Keep the story authentic
• End the story well
• More reading
• Summary

CHAPTER 5: Stories as Part of a UX Process

• UX is a cross-disciplinary practice
• Using stories in user experience design is not a new idea
• Stories can be part of many UX activities
• More reading
• Summary

CHAPTER 6: Collecting Stories (as Part of Research)

• The best stories come from being there
• Other sources of stories are all around you
• Listen for stories
• Get groups to tell stories to each other
• Explore memorable incidents
• You can observe stories, too
• Tips for collecting stories
• Write stories into your notes
• More reading
• Summary

CHAPTER 7: Selecting Stories (as Part of Analysis)

• Your first audience: yourself
• What are you looking for?
• Finding the stories
• Finding stories in data
• Building stories into personas
• Summary

CHAPTER 8: Using Stories for Design Ideas

• Stories evolve through the design process
• Brainstorming for new stories: Generative stories
• Brainstorming helper: The storytelling game
• Developing user research stories: Generative stories (again)
• Incorporating your user research into the brainstorming game
• Moving from brainstorming to concept: Expressive stories
• Stories that document design: Prescriptive stories
• Stories can be part of the brand story
• More reading
• Summary

CHAPTER 9: Evaluating with Stories

• Using stories to create usability tasks
• Turn user stories into "instant" usability tasks
• Turning tasks into stories
• Collecting stories just in time for usability testing
• Using stories for reviews
• Collecting stories during a usability test
• More reading
• Summary

Chapter 10: Sharing Stories (Managing Up and Across)

• Don't worry - everyone is a storyteller
• Help the audience build the story you tell
• If you don't know your audience well, try listening
• A few audiences you might meet
• More reading
• Summary

Chapter 11: Crafting a Story

• What do we mean by "craft"?
• Stories get better with practice
• Sometimes stories fail
• Think carefully about your goals
• Summary

Chapter 12: Considering the Audience

• The relationship between the audience and the story
• Details from user research help ground stories
• What if they think they know, but they don't?
• Mirror stories are stories about ourselves
• The relationship between you and the audience
• How much are you like the audience
• Is your relationship to the story the same as the audience's?
• Do you bring different pieces of the puzzle?
• Help them get from here to there
• Use stories to advocate
• Bring them home safely
• More reading
• Summary

Chapter 13: Combining the Ingredients of a Story

• Perspective
• Characters
• Context
• Imagery
• Language of the story
• Putting the ingredients together
• Summary

Chapter 14: Developing Structure and Plot

• Story structures are patterns
• Story structure helps the audience, the author, and the story
• Useful story structures for UX stories
• Using plot
• Choosing a story structure and plot
• Stories are more than the sum of their parts
• More reading
• Summary

Chapter 15: Ways to Tell Stories

• Telling oral stories
• Written stories
• Visual stories
• Multimedia, video, or animated stories
• Putting stories in your reports
• Make presentations a story of their own
• Choosing the medium for your story
• More reading
• Summary

CHAPTER 16

Try Something New

Index

Acknowledgements

Contributors

About the Authors