Storytelling, Personas, and How to Improve Your Deliverables

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Photo: Pip R. Lagenta via Compfight cc[/caption]

A while ago I wrote an article for my friends at UX Booth that discussed the importance of personas in user experience practices, and how simply using personas in design can improve the user experience drastically. After writing that article I realized that just creating personas and bringing them into design discussions isn’t enough to make the most of them.

Personas get complicated very quickly as different types of users are added with different objectives. This complexity makes it tough for designers and clients to be on the same page in conversations and leads to a great deal of confusion as the project evolves.

To avoid this confusion, we started using storytelling as a tool. What we’ve found is that including storytelling in our mockups improves the communication between us and our clients.

By using storytelling, we’re creating a consistency between words and images that has allowed both clients and designers to be specific about what is being shown for who, ask relevant questions about specific user types, and be show precisely how changes to the design can affect users’ decisions. But before we do any of this, we need to make sure we’ve got the terminology clear so there isn’t any confusion.

Terminology: Laying the groundwork

When scoping out a project, we make sure to know who will be accessing it. Everything we can find out, from demographical information like age and gender, to usability information like device and access point is collected.

We also make note of a user’s objectives based on their role. For example, is the user selling an item, or are they shopping? Defining these roles early is important because it gives us insight into functionality that needs to be sorted out in the work we’re doing.

Once we know the different roles and objectives, defining them with consistent terminology is something we advocate strongly with our clients. In personas this means names for different users (“Joe Seller” and “Bob Buyer”), but this can be as simple as “Buyer” and “Seller”. The majority of our team’s communication with clients is over Basecamp messages, so getting this terminology down right away makes everyone’s lives easier. Not to mention if a client asks to see what a “Seller” sees when they access a dashboard, our designer knows right away what the client is referring to.

Having different people refer to the same role in two different ways or referring to the same page in multiple terms is when things get confusing. Right at the point of confusion we pause and get the terminology clear. Forcing everyone to stop and do this makes everyone sharpen up. Most times we only need to have this happen once in any project for everyone to remember that other people need to understand what they’re saying.

An example of this on a recent project we’ve been working on was the terminology between Learning Events and Learning Materials. Learning Events were “containers” that held Learning Materials. Having these two terms thrown around in conversations while defining hierarchies and looking for iterations to designs got messy initially. After defining them properly across the team, we were able to better understand the needs of the users, as well as engage in understandable conversations with our clients.

Even better, on that same project: Classes and Courses mean different things in the UK than they do in Canada and the U.S., so defining even what would seem like the simplest things can help avoid confusion down the road.

Storytelling: Putting designs in the real world

A good designer is a good storyteller. And like any good storyteller, referencing imagery in the text is important. Usually this is done by explaining interactions or thoughts, but tying in personas to designs to explain how the user would complete an action is powerful. By simply integrating personas into your designs and delivering them using proper terminology and making reference to the personas, suddenly they’re relevant.

We can do this by using the personas’ names in designs (e.g. if you’re creating a profile for a Buyer, use “Bob Buyer” and stay consistent for all pages related to Bob’s experience), and referencing the terminology we’ve all agreed on in the designs. Now when clients see Bob Buyer’s face and name, they know right away that the screen was designed for Buyers.

Using storytelling as a tool improves how clients perceive our designs by making sure more complex concepts are broken down into digestible chunks. When clients come with drawings of the way they imagine things to work, it can be tough to explain to them that there are better ways of completing a certain task. But by using storytelling, the client is forced to stand in the shoes of their users and imagine their path to complete that same task.

Delivery: Making designs make sense

All of the above is about execution, and the combination of the two strategies (personas and storytelling) to make designs make sense. Weaving both design and explanation together allows our designs to have their own stories and be more than just bullets on a page. When problems arise in design, things can be explained in a straightforward way by making reference to the personas and terminology created so that it can be understood in the design.

These stories help shape the user’s experience because everyone isn’t just focused on getting all of the elements on the page: they’re focused on creating something that is well thought-out and intuitive for the users.

Bringing it all together

While this article references the importance of storytelling with special regards to distributed teams, this is equally as important in a product-driven team, and teams that are working alongside their clients. Whether you’re delivering your designs in a project management tool like we are, over email or in a boardroom, how you explain your designs determines the kind of feedback you’ll receive.

By adding storytelling to your discussions and making use of personas in them, you allow terminology that you’ve created to be used and live throughout the design process. Breaking things down in steps is important for any team, and how you bring it together towards delivery is crucial to a smooth project.