The Use of Stories in User Experience Design

Stories capture characteristics of a design space and audience that designers and engineers need to understand in order to build a complete and useful software experience. A story is a design communication tool that transcends the cultural divides of multidisciplinary teams, and intertwines a technology with its user’s goals.This paper describes how stories are powerful tools in software design, defines the elements that make a compelling story, and presents the use of stories at IBM from the authors’ experience. It also explores the benefits at each phase of the design process and how stories evolve throughout the process.