Storytelling Through UX: Designing a Journey, Not a Page

Storytelling is everywhere around us. In UX as well, we design pages thinking of a user journey. It depicts a story that tells how the user will move from one point to another in the mobile app. UX is inherently a part of storytelling. The better the user journey, the better the experience of end users in the app. The user research, journey mapping, persona building and converting an idea to a UX design are all part of storytelling. 

In this blog, we will discuss how mobile app designers utilise the art of storytelling to create an effective user journey within the app. Missing out on storytelling before app designing is one of the most common UI/UX mistakes when it comes to mobile app development. Mobile app development companies place a strong emphasis on how storytelling can enhance the user journey and ultimately the overall experience. So let’s begin exploring what storytelling in UX entails. 

What is Storytelling in UX? Let’s Find Out

There is a simple arc in every basic story, which begins from a goal, goes through some conflicts and obstacles and reaches the final point of success or failure. The conflict in the mobile app design can be anything that hinders the users from reaching their end goal. It leads the mobile app designers to take actions to prevent the conflict and implement solutions so that users can reach their goal efficiently. 

It’s a simple usability principle that mobile app designers follow when designing a mobile application. Designers map such a story in the user journey, based on which they design the mobile application. There is a crucial role of UX designers in user story mapping where they create mobile app designs which is highly user-friendly and accessible to users. How the entire story plays out depends on how well designers understand the obstacles and implement actions to overcome them. 

How UX Designers Use Storytelling to Understand Users and Design Apps? 

Storytelling to Create Personas

UX designers use storytelling to create user personas. UX designers create a semi-fictional representation of the end users who will be using the mobile applications. They conduct user research based on real users who will be the target audience of the mobile application. By including the pain points, goals, behaviours, and demographics of the users, they create a user persona, which is crucial in UX as it promotes user-centric design decisions and fosters empathy with users. 

It is essential to define the target users of the mobile applications before we get into the actual design process. In this, the UX designers enlist the goals and general traits of the real users based on which they create a story about the users that includes their pain points, their goals, their aspirations, their expectations from the application and their demographic information. For example, suppose UX designers are working on an application that enables them to find freelancing work alongside their college education. The user story below is about the ideal customer of the application, which goes something like this.

“Simone, a 23-year-old student at Texas University, is currently finishing her graduation in commerce. She still has 6 more months left in her graduation, but she is eager to start work in her free time to support her family and her basic expenses. After careful thought, she is looking for freelancing jobs that can support her academic lifestyle and also give her time to focus on her studies. She wishes to find freelancing work that requires approximately. 4 hours of her time per day. However, without a final degree yet, she cannot pursue full-time employment. Typical job applications don’t show many opportunities for freelance work, and it’s the only struggle she faces when it comes to finding freelance work”

Now, what does this story tell you?

Simone wants a freelancing job because she is still a student. We also get to know about her struggle with finding freelancing work on typical job applications and sites. Wth effective storytelling, Simone’s struggle, pain points, goal and demographics are clear in our heads. Aren’t they? This is the art of storytelling in UX. 

Storytelling to Create User Scenarios

Just like storytelling helps UX designers develop user personas to understand the target users, it also helps UX designers to create user scenarios, which are an extension of user personas. Defining the user scenario for the end users helps you understand how they will interact with the application and how it will solve their specific issues. User scenarios are inherently based on the user persona, which has a specific beginning, a middle and an end, which takes you through the journey of problem, problem-solving and solution. Now, if you want to create user scenarios from the above user persona, it will go something like this:

• Simone finds the Freelancer mobile application and discovers multiple jobs offering flexible work hours.
• Simone downloads the application and creates a profile. 
• Simone finishes the questionnaire that asks about her qualifications, job experiences, expertise, and other demographic characteristics.
• Simone uses the application to find recent freelancing jobs in the content writing and content creator domains.
• Simone finds 5 to 6 jobs that match her interest area and sends a direct message to the respective employers to know more about the job requirements and expectations. 

To Sum Up

UX designers can create powerful stories in UX design that help them plan the entire user journey from a starting point to the end point. By developing a sense of engagement and emotional connection with users through storytelling, UX designers can guide users well through the entire product journey. If you are looking for an intuitive and fully fledged mobile application that matches user expectations and fulfils their demands, you should reach out to VerveLogic, a leading mobile application development company in India.