What we should mean when we talk about storytelling & experience

We understand the world by telling stories.

For many years, creative communities have used storytelling as a means to an end. When used properly, storytelling is a design tool that exposes the emotional and physical contexts our users occupy. We can then draft insights from those contexts and be confident that our work will be valuable to our users.

As a design tool, designers and developers use storytelling to craft experiences that compel their users toward specific and measured interactions: click 'buy,' tap 'share,' for example. And this is a great use of the method. Storytelling is even more valuable when we also write the chapters that don’t involve the brands we represent.

There's more to the story when we look further than the transaction.

We should be writing stories for our customers that allow them to be the heroine in the story they’re crafting in their own stories. Instead of focusing on a few essential interactions, our stories should plot a lifecycle of opportunities to engage when valuable and learn from customers all along the way.

To do so, we need to understand the stories in which our users find themselves. And this means looking to classical rhetoric for guidance. 

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The Seven Types of Story  

It is helpful for designers to assess our audience and understand the types of stories we tell and how they can be leveraged as design tools. 

1. Overcoming the Monster

This story archetype places a hero in conflict with a monster that must be slain to return balance to the world. Is your user experiencing conflict? How can you assist in the battle?

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2. Rags to Riches

As the name implies, your user’s path is to find success and the rewards that come with it. What can your brand do to help?

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3. The Quest

This story type posits a strong, treasure-seeking explorer often accompanied by a band of followers. This is Homer’s Odyssey, the classic tale of a long, transformational search for a valued item. Can your brand assist in the search? 

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4. Voyage and Return

Your customer may have unwittingly set forth on a voyage to a strange land to overcome a series of challenges before returning home. Your brand can assist in navigating successful outcomes to these challenges. 

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5. Comedy

The classical concept of comedy brings challenges that stem from mistaken identity or other confusions between characters. These must be discovered and rectified before the user’s goals can be met. Can your brand help to illuminate confusion in your user’s world?

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6. Rebirth

Your user must experience an awakening or reckoning to motivate behavior change. Can your brand be a trustworthy agent of that change?

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7. Tragedy

In the classics, tragedy usually befalls characters who have overstepped their ego or talents. Can your brand warn before the fall? Or help pad the landing?

Takeaways

Great experience design is the product of great storytelling. By extension, the better we are at storytelling, the better the design artifacts we produce based on them. Consider writing detailed stories that leverage the seven story archetypes from human history.  

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