Stories are how we understand the journey users go on, and how we explain our work so that others understand its value.
This month’s resources are all about how stories are used in design to understand problems and communicate the importance of our work.
Read
Articles
Two Tips for Better UX Storytelling
https://www.nngroup.com/articles/two-tips-better-ux-storytelling/
Effective storytelling involves both engaging the audience and structuring stories in a concise, yet effective manner. You can improve your user stories by taking advantage of the concept of story triangle and of the story-mountain template.
Books
Design is Storytelling by Ellen Lupton
This amazing book contextualizes the artifacts we make in design — journey maps, storyboards, prototypes, personas — as all different ways of communicating stories about our users and products.
https://www.amazon.com/Design-Storytelling-Ellen-Lupton/dp/194230319X
Storytelling with Data
This is one of the best books on presentations, and an excellent introduction on using data to communicate stories. While a large part of the book is about when to use different data visualizations and how to make visualizations easy to understand, its most important lessons are about understanding what you’re trying to communicate and who you’re trying to communicate to.
https://www.amazon.com/Storytelling-Data-Visualization-Business-Professionals/dp/1119002257
Socials
McKinsey makes $500,000+ on a single presentation.
You can learn their simple framework below (for free):
— Jasper Polak (@polak_jasper) July 23, 2022
Watch
Kurt Vonnegut on the Shapes of Stories
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oP3c1h8v2ZQ
How smart teams create and train writers – with Scott Kubie (21 Sep 2021)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ev25kxz2o8k
Canberra and Melbourne content strategy March 2022: From strategy to stories with Mel Flanagan
Listen
The Crazy One Podcast episode 14: Understanding your audience, the aftermath and keeping it sold
Episode 13 covered the things you need to do to create a powerful presentation and this episode will teach you how you can better understand the clients you are presenting to and what needs to happen after your presentation to keep your work sold.
Lenny’s Podcast: How to tell better stories | Matthew Dicks (Storyworthy)
https://www.lennyspodcast.com/how-to-tell-better-stories-matthew-dicks-storyworthy/
Great interview with Matthew Dicks, author of the book Storyworthy, about how stories shape memories, the value of stories to business, and how to tell better stories.
UXPodcast #165: Enterprise stories with Donna Lichaw
https://uxpodcast.com/165-enterprise-stories-donna-lichaw/
Donna Lichaw returns to UX Podcast for another chat, this time we focus on how stories could be used when working with Enterprise UX. Donna is the author of The User’s Journey. In the book Donna explains the idea of storymapping. How, when, and why to use narrative structure in your design work.
