The Importance of Storytelling to UX Design

As web sites and web applications become increasingly modular in their construction, Designers run the risk of creating applications that consist of an endless, near random, stack of modules. This situation is common to many ecommerce experiences. Because it is widely accepted that users "will scroll," there seems to be a willingness to stack modules on top of modules, endlessly, with no sense of hierarchy, or logical narrative.

Take a Step Back to Plan
A key theme to many of my blog entries is the need to plan. Planning is fundamental to Design. When designing the UX of an application, planning needs to happen at many levels. Core user experience planning happens after an assessment of end-user needs, as a result of qualitative behavioral research. In addition to that, however, there needs to be planning from business stakeholders, which should result in a marketing and content strategy. It is a combination of the user needs assessment and the business' content strategy, that results in the framework, or user experience strategy, of a web site or application.

What's the Overall Story?
I've used some jargon to describe the building blocks of the user experience of a web site or application. Really, it boils down to this:

1. What do users expect from the experience?
2. What story does the business want to convey to its users?

A business can enjoy great freedom in storytelling, as long as users can intuitively get what they expect or need from the user experience. The sad fact is, not many businesses are great at telling stories online.

Each Page Tells a Story
The underlying information architecture of an application is the outline of a novel, but each page or screen of the experience tells it's own story. It is important to map these narratives, at the page-level, before engaging in interaction design. Block out regions of each key screen, using low-fidelity wireframes. That will help you define the story that you are telling on each page.

Simplify and Engage
Ernest Hemingway was straightforward and understated. Anne Rice is ornate and rich with detail. When designing for the web, you'll want to lean more towards Ernest. Excessive visual design and content can quickly obscure your story. Make sure that doesn't happen, by creating pages that have real structure, modules that are introduced with bold headers, and copy that is brief and infused with the personality of the brand.

Your web site or application should be a platform for your business to have a conversation with your users. Architect it as such.

Jonathan Lupo - http://www.twitter.com/userexperience