Storytelling for User Experience: Crafting Stories for Better Design [Color] [Paperback]

Whitney Quesenbery (Author), Kevin Brooks (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 15, 2010 | ISBN-10: 1933820470 | ISBN-13: 978-1933820477 | Edition: 1st

We all use stories to communicate, explore, persuade, and inspire. In user experience, stories help us to understand our users, learn about their goals, explain our research, and demonstrate our design ideas. In this book, Quesenbery and Brooks teach you how to craft and tell your own unique stories to improve your designs.

Testimonials

"Stories facilitate a level of communication that is as close to telepathy as you can get. Kevin and Whitney guide you to use storytelling in `how to' scenarios so smoothly that you may never realize how far you leapfrogged ahead and never know the mistakes you didn't make because of this book. It's that good."
—Annette Simmons, author of The Story Factor

"A very practical, readable survey of ways to use one of the world's oldest and most powerful transmedia forms—storytelling—to increase the coherence and effectiveness of digital artifacts. Brooks and Quesenbery offer concrete strategies for creating a richer design process and more successful user experiences."
—Janet Murray, Director of Graduate Studies, Digital Media M.S./Ph.D. Program, Georgia Tech

"Whitney and Kevin clearly articulate the power and effectiveness of storytelling for understanding users and communicating their real experiences to all project stakeholders. Their guidelines for integrating storytelling into user research and design have already given me new ways to help my clients better know their users and deliver great products and services. This is a reference I will be reaching for regularly."
—Karen Bachmann, Partner, Seascape Consulting

"I have been tantalized by the power of the story to impact so many facets of the user experience process. The arrival of this thoughtful, actionable, and wide-ranging book is a glorious day!
—Steve Portigal, Principal, Portigal Consulting

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Rosenfeld Media; 1st edition (April 15, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1933820470
• ISBN-13: 978-1933820477
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #102,911 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Teaching an essential skill September 11, 2010

By Giles Colborne

Format:Paperback

Stories persuade, explain and engage and storytelling is one of the most important skills for a design researcher. In this book Whitney Quesenbery and Kevin Brooks explain their techniques and approach. The book is in part a collection of stories about using storytelling in design that illustrate how and where stories fit into design. For me, many of the most interesting and useful tips were in looking at the structure of stories (particularly comparing a simply told story with an equally compact but more dynamic, convincing and memorable form). As usual with a Rosenfeld Media book, it's all beautifully presented. Whitney Quesenbery has done a great deal to awaken designers to the power of storytelling. Certainly she's changed the way I approach collecting and reporting user research. This book may do the same for you.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Let me tell you a story... August 20, 2012

By atmj TOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

There is nothing more persuasive than a well told story. As most User experiences revolve around an action done by a person, to achieve a result, creating a story to illustrate the success or failure of the action is a natural fit. It is also a natural fit for showing the user's motivation in the first place. The place of storytelling in the Usability engineers repertoire in many ways you would think is a natural one. However as most usability professionals are trained engineers/scientists the process of developing a story around their process/product may not come so easy. Most engineers are interested in facts and figures and not the softer stuff of storytelling. But facts and figures while being accurate, may not be as compelling as a well crafted story that puts their audience in the shoes of the user, or developing the story further to show the gains to be had in the market place for a more usable product. Let's face it storytelling is also salesmanship.

This book addresses the role of storytelling in both Usability testing, Design and Reporting.
Briefly the chapters are listed below. You can see the subchapters online as you can view inside this book. I've noted where items really grabbed my attention.
Chapter 1: Why Stories
Chapter 2: How UX Stories Work
Chapter 3: Stories Start with Listening (and Observing)
Chapter 4: The Ethics of Stories
Chapter 5: Stories as part of a UX process
Chapter 6: Collecting Stories (as part of UX Research)
*****(walking through tasks as a persona you are more likely to use a product like they would. I have done this many times and it always surprised me what I find independent of the design process)
Chapter 7: Selecting Stories (as part of UX Analysis)
Chapter 8: Using Stories for Design Ideas (how to transform them)
*****(this section had some neat exercises to get you thinking about how stories can relate what you want to tell)
Chapter 9: Evaluating with Stories
Chapter 10: Sharing Stories (Managing Up and Across)
Chapter 11: Crafting a Story
Chapter 12: Considering the Audience
Chapter 13: Combining the Ingredients of a Story
Chapter 14: Developing Structure and Plot
*****(I found this section very useful where it breaks down the kind of stories than are common and how to use them.)
Chapter 15: Ways to tell Stories
Chapter 16: Try Something New

I found this book to be a useful primer on how to use facts to create a story around a product. I think it is natural to do this, but not necessarily what one considers when creating a report. As a participant in many a dry report presentation, I know stories would help the data come alive.

11 of 16 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars All you need to know about storytelling in user experience. Inspiring. April 22, 2010

By C. Jarrett

Format:Paperback

I've been eagerly waiting for this book ever since Whitney Quesenbery asked me to comment on parts of the book as they wrote it, and I knew that they had chosen to use some of my stories. So as I quickly had my first glance through the book, I couldn't resist looking first at the places where I was mentioned, and came to this story from Whitney:

"The first time I talked about storytelling in public, I was pretty nervous. Debi Parush, Karen Bachmann, and Basil White sat up with me the night before while I ripped up and rewrote the whole presentation. The next morning, I arrived to find a room full of people and Caroline Jarrett sitting in front, notepad at the ready. Terrifying".

And I'd thought I was being friendly and attentive! What she doesn't say is that her presentation was brilliant. I started using stories myself, and I also invited her to teach a workshop at a training event I was organising a few months later. We've been working together on and off ever since.

That story sums up our whole working relationship, based on deep mututal respect, constantly challenging each other to do the best work we possibly can, and occasional dramatic differences in perspective.

Which brings me to my review of the book. I've given it five stars, as you might expect knowing that Whitney and I work together, but I hope my story helps to convice you that despite our association, I'd never do that unless I thought the book thoroughly deserved them.

Chapters 1 through 5 are the first section of the book. They explain how stories work, calling on our shared human experiences that go back to the time before writing when our culture, history, and craft were communicated through stories. Even if you only have time for one chapter, buy this book for chapter 3 "Stories start with listening", which explains the importance of listening and is full of practical tips about how to do it better: as a user experience practitioner, as an employee, as a consultant, as a boss.

Chapters 6 though 10 dive into the practicalities of using stories in user experience design: finding stories, brainstorming with stories, using stories to influence decision-makers, and much more.

And then chapters 11 through 16 are the bit that challenges you to do even better. This book isn't just about using any old story, it's about using the best story you can - and understanding the elements that make it so. To give just one example: if you've wondered why your reports haven't had the impact you wanted, then turn to Chapter 15 for ways that stories can help.

Summary: buy it, read it, use it. You'll improve your user experience designs if you do.