UX Design

User Story

User Story

The user story is a fictional one-sentence story told from a persona’s point of view to inspire and inform design decisions. It introduces the user, identifies an obstacle, and states its ultimate goal. Designers refer to these as scenarios or use cases.

Benefits of user stories:

  • User stories prioritize design goals if you have many users needs to consider. User stories determine which ones are the most critical to resolve.

  • Unite the team around a clear goal. 

  • inspire empathetic design decisions by making our approach user-centered, also known as user-centric

  • personalize pitches to stakeholders. You aren’t just presenting your design update ideas. You’re demonstrating how the updates will help specific types of people.

How do you write a user story?

Like a classic short story, user stories have a hero with an ultimate goal and a conflict that keeps them from conquering that goal.

USER STORY =  HERO + GOAL + CONFLICT

 

To write a user story, we follow this simple formula:

As (a type of user), I want to (action) so that (benefit)

The type of user describes whom we are designing for.

Action is what the user hopes will happen.

The benefit is why the user wants the action to occur.

This formula keeps the problem user-centered, actionable, and clear.

When building a new or improved product, the designer aims to keep all users on the happy path.

The happy path:

The happy path Describes a user story with a happy ending. For this user, everything goes as expected, and they reach their goal without issue.

Edge Case:

Edge case Is what happens when things go wrong that are beyond the user’s control.

Unfortunately, for other users, things go quite differently.

Good UX anticipates edge cases and re-routes users back to the happy path. When things don’t go as planned in edge cases, the obstacle is beyond the user’s control.

Spotting and resolving potential edge cases:

  • Create personas and user stories for various users and problems. They can keep even the most vulnerable users on the happy path.

  • Thoroughly review the project before launch. In a rush to launch a product, UX designers might focus only on the happy path. Giving the project a final good review from the user’s perspective helps designers identify edge cases 

  • using wireframes. Wireframes help visualize the project, which makes it easier to identify potential user pain points.

Check out my behnace or my portfolio for examples.