UX and Storytelling

A BINDER TO ENHANCE AN EXPERIENCE

A good user experience is not ensured only by usability, ergonomics of an interface or interface design. Indeed, empathy, support for the user, his relationship with the product or the brand, are all things that can create a memorable user experience. 
storytelling article

Storytelling or the art of telling a story

Storytelling draws its first origins from the period of Ancient Greece, the cradle of the art of rhetoric and great orators conveying messages through narrative episodes.

People have always enjoyed listening to stories as well in the tribes: around the fire, all gathered. Stories are sung, told and travel through time.

Then, the generations pass them on: the most flagrant ancient example is undoubtedly the Greek mythologies. Narrative art amplifies and incorporates emotional value, which a simple traditional pitch would not provide. The objective of storytelling is therefore to introduce an emotion, a desire to adhere to a message or to continue a story. The human brain is naturally receptive to storytelling, as it is predisposed to think, understand and create meaning from narration.

User experience is a story

As Designers, our goal is to make the user experience as pleasant and memorable as possible. This experience is built like a story, in particular with:

    • Your users (characters)
    • Their journeys
    • Their goals
    • Their motives
    • Problems (rebounds / conflicts)
    • Their interaction with a product 

All in a relationship with a brand. This narrative territory goes follow users throughout their experience with the brand and the product, in order to build a much stronger bond.
man reading a story on the plane

A story whose user is the hero

You need to know what you want to tell and why you are doing it:

  • The territory of expression must be in line with the values ​​of the brand and what makes the product unique.

Creating a territory is possible with the animation of workshops with your customers, in order to obtain a common vision of the strengths of the product or the brand, but also what they want to tell (examples of workshops: Warm Up, Design Principles, Design the box, Design Value Proposition…). These are different workshops that will define a strategy and a positioning.
It is also possible to ask the users themselves to express in a few words or in metaphor, their feelings about the brand, and this is sometimes very interesting. This is done through interviews or questionnaires.

How and to whom are you going to tell it?

The user is at the center and you will have to find the best way to guide him in his journey:

  • Find elements of language in which he will find himself
  • Bring him the information as he would have done to be able to solve his problems
  • Finally even, bring him emotion

La user search is necessary to better understand the habits of users, their mental patterns, the typology of language, the means of navigation, the emotions that make them more aware... shadowing ou Fly on the wall allows you to be closer to them in order to understand them and be in empathy. Your people become the heroes of your stories: we even invite you to create an empathy map.
For information architecture, card sorting is very useful for understanding the mental maps of your users. and even use language elements that resemble them. To think of the user at the center of the experience is to think of him as the main character and your role is to accompany him throughout it. This way, the journeys will be designed in a more obvious way for your users and will appear simpler to them.

A story well orchestrated

What are you going to tell and how? The “how” of the story is designed, in particular by creating scenarios, experience maps, storyboards… all these tools that narrate the sequences of actions of your users with empathy. Your story must resonate with the expectations and needs of your users.  
You have to be able to imagine the story of your users from beginning to end. What happens when your user arrives for the first time on your site / application? How do you welcome it? When he encounters a problem? And after the success of his objective? In any story, unforeseen events, problems, twists and turns can arise and storytelling will help the flow to react during these conflicts with elements of narration but also of incentive.
Adrien Figula, commercial director at JCDecaux Airport Paris, says that it is necessary to:

To bring something more to the consumer than he can get elsewhere. You have to transform a product into an enriched moment, where something different happens.

This in order to change the consumer's view and take a completely different place by his side. He must feel that he is fully participating in the experience.

Examples inspiring storytelling

inspiring

airbnb 

The hero (the user) is a traveler seeking an authentic experience.
The guide (the brand) is a welcoming designer with a strong appeal for beauty.
The promise is an enchanting and trustworthy platform where people can connect and discover inspiring places.
The baseline is: Welcome home!

Uber

The hero (the user) is someone with a secret desire to feel like a VIP in their daily life.
The guide (the brand) is a fearless entrepreneur determined to confront the lies and flaws of taxis.
The promise is an application as exciting as using a James Bond object.
The baseline is: Seize the moment.

How to use storytelling in UX?

LEAN UX DESIGN

#1 Authenticity

Here we are talking about building trust, it becomes necessary to be right. Give meaning to its stories, by positioning itself in a territory that completely corresponds to the values ​​of the brand, at the risk of being unmasked if they are not in line with what it claims to tell. Confidence is earned and proven also during the experience. Telling a "true" story is the easiest way to reach your users!

We must dare the fault

As Fleur Broca CEO of Loud Story (a startup that helps startups create their own storytelling), “you have to dare the fault”. Authenticity will automatically convey sympathy and empathy from your users, who then become the real heroes of the story.

#2 Structure

To start, you have to think of the complete story, with a beginning, a middle and an end (hopefully happy!). Indeed, for the unfolding and giving substance to this story, it is important that your story outline is well determined in order, then, to properly structure the deployment of actions and content. The objective will be to articulate the storytelling by staging the product or service, so as to obtain a sales tunnel. This is why the tree structure and the architecture must correspond to a narrative sequence to be truly relevant.
Airbnb uses storyboarding and storytelling as the basis of their design. The little stories of their personas are hung everywhere in their premises and always make it possible to bring people back to the center. What's great is that with this big global story, they will then be able to come and create little side stories to enrich the experience. The user will not be greeted in the same way when registering as when connecting for the 15th time.

#3 The type of language

Narration brings a human dimension and touches your users more.
Short action-focused sentences like the example of INPI. During its redesign, work on architecture and content categorization was designed for users and the language was simplified for better understanding. The action of the user is at the center of the information and facilitates the journeys. INPI repositions itself as the home of innovators, welcoming and guiding users in their various approaches.
Clicnjob, a platform dedicated to the professional integration of young people far from employment, also worked on the language of the platform. By positioning itself as an educational guide, a 3-month anthropological study revealed the digital practices of young people and thus offered content based on their habits and knowledge, in particular the use of familiarity.

In an age of almost instantaneous digital interaction and conversation with the consumer, the conversational can support the universe of the brand and the proximity with the user.

So remember to work on the type of language according to your users and the values ​​of the brand.

#4 The tone used

What relationship do you want to maintain during the experience? A casual tone? close and benevolent? Trainline has distinguished itself and maintained a close relationship with its customers. The brand uses a fair tone that accompanies and humanizes the informative messages.

We like to talk about 'distance from the hairdresser'. The hairdresser is someone who knows your first name, to whom you can tell about your vacation, but who doesn't use familiarity with you, and keeps a fairly fine distance, and a sense of professionalism.

Jean-Daniel Guyot, President of trainline international
The tone will humanize the experience and the user will feel closer to the product and the brand. So let's talk to humans like humans!

#5 Time and micro-moments

Each device and each moment of the day does not constitute different stories but constitutes a global experience. It is therefore necessary to propose a story without a break between offline and online (to understand experience between two worlds).
The goal is to create consistency in your journeys by providing a set of elements that the user will pick up according to the different contact points and different times. This consistency is ensured by defining quality standards and maintaining them on all your points of contact. “Small details with a human behind” spoken of by Jean Daniel Guyot of Trainline.
Maintain the common thread by integrating into the daily routines of users and by not losing any opportunity to talk to them, guide them and reassure them, especially during waiting times. (to master the flow)

Within a universe that makes sense, the brand becomes a creator of values, beyond communicating on a product, it is a whole ideology that is transmitted and evokes things for your users.

So look for keywords, expressions in search engines to find out what your users want to know and what they want to do. And try to determine your micro-moments. Ask yourself how your user's intent might change based on time of day, location, and context in ways that make you useful throughout their journey (for how to be useful in all micro moments).
Also use data to identify intentions and micro-moments (to learn more about the moments that matter).
Inescapable moments from “I want to know” to “I want to be inspired” to “I want to buy” should drive your storytelling.

 storytelling immersion

TAKE AWAY

The interest of a well-crafted storytelling in an optimized and meaningful user experience is to immerse the user and offer him a unique experience. Collaborative exchanges, but also humor, derision, emotion and complicity are part of the keys to successful storytelling.
Today, the conversational era will require more than ever advanced storytelling coupled with data for an ultra-personalized and immersive experience. 
So why not co-create the strategy and write the story right away with your users? Because storytelling is part of your UX strategy.
The final takeaway from storytelling is that we are humans in front of humans with a technology in the middle and the storytelling allows among other things this link, so be that fellow traveler.

And you, what story will you bring to life for your users?

UX-Republic
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