CSCI 499 Practice Story

Practice Story Examples

These three sites stood out (others were good, too):

• withjoy.com
• Cam Scanner
• AirPod 3.0

Purpose

In this unit we will also start to learn about the LeanUX agile UI process and how to use stories to support that process.

Preparation

Read:

• Skim LeanUX chapters 1 and 2.
• User's Journey Intro and chapters 1-3
• User's Journey chapter 5
• User's Journey pages 102-103

Chapter questions

• LeanUX chapter question. Compare the principles listed to what you already know about agile. Many of these should be similar. Can you identify a couple principles that either sound new OR are stated in a way that shifts the focus somewhat?
• User's Journey question. In a sentence or two, what's the main point of the Intro/Chapter 1?

Practice Story

Storymapping can be a very effective technique, but it requires a different skill set/thought process than writing code. Before trying to write stories for the new product you are designing, it will help to reverse engineer a story for an existing product.

Think about a product you like. Or maybe talk to a friend (casually) about a product they like (e.g., just something like "I see you keep using X, what do you like about it?"). If compelling, try your friend's product.

Write a story for either the product you like OR the product your friend likes. You should write both a concept story (described in chapter 3) and a usage story (chapter 5). If you feel you need more practice, feel free to include a couple usage stories.

A concept story must include:

• Exposition: Identify the target audience and what they want (goal)
• Inciting Incident/Problem: What's keeping the user(s) from meeting their goal?
• Rising Action: How your product addresses that problem. Include your product name.
• Crisis: The competition. How do users currently solve the problem? OR, what factors might prevent users from adopting your product? What are all the negatives potential customers might imagine?
• Climax/Resolution: The value provided by your product (how it addresses the problem and overcomes the crisis).
• Falling Action: (less well-defined, imo) In general, it seems like potential users might adopt, might need more convincing, or might remain skeptical.
• End: Must reconcile your business goals with the user’s goals.

A usage story must include:

• Exposition: Why is the customer going to use your product? (current goal)
• Inciting Incident/Problem: What kickstarts the user for this particular usage?
• Rising Action: What is the first action? Next action? ...
• Crisis: What might prevent the user from completing this action/having a positive experience?
• Climax/Resolution: How will any obstacles be overcome? How will the user recognize the value?
• Falling Action: How do you wrap up this particular session/experience?
• End: Where is the user now? Closer to the overall goal? Is the next step obvious?

The category descriptions are somewhat abstract/arbitrary. I found that they made much more sense after writing a couple stories... hope you do as well!

Submit

Collect your questions and stories into a single pdf.

Evaluation

As with other assignments, your work will be evaluated based on how well you illustrate your understanding of the material. That said, I realize this is a brand new skill, so will be somewhat lenient on this first attempt.