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The User's Journey

Page 14

by Donna Lichaw


  For those who contributed insight, ideas, and imagery along the way: Marta Justak, Eva-Lotta Lamm, Ajay Rajani, Lis Hubert, Michael Leis, David Malouf, Chris Noessel, Paul Rissen, and Senongo Akpem.

  For my fellow campers. You know who you are. You remind me daily that it’s OK to take up space.

  And for Snowball, my cat, who passed away right before I decided to write a book. You taught me that a cardboard box is never just a box. It’s whatever you want it to be.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  For more than 15 years, Donna Lichaw has guided startups, non-profits, and Fortune 500 brands in optimizing their digital products and services by providing them with a simplified way to drive user engagement through impactful storytelling. As a consultant, speaker, writer, and educator, she utilizes a “story first” approach to help teams define their value proposition, transform their thinking, and better engage with their core customers.

  Donna developed her talent for storytelling and narrative development as a documentary filmmaker, from which she built a successful career as a digital product strategist for a number of emerging and established companies in New York and London. She has been recognized as a subject expert on storytelling and customer engagement strategies, speaking at design and technology conferences throughout the U.S., Canada, and Europe.

  Donna graduated from Northwestern University with an MFA in radio, film, and television, and completed her undergraduate degree in film and video studies at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. She has taught courses and delivered seminars on design, communication, and user experience at New York University, Northwestern University, and General Assembly, and is an adjunct faculty member at the School of Visual Arts.

  She currently works and resides in Brooklyn, New York with her partner, Erica, their crooked dog, Ralph, and doe-eyed, pointy-eared cat, Gizmo. You can find her at www.donnalichaw.com and on Twitter @dlichaw.

  Footnotes

  CHAPTER 2 How Story Works

  1 http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/2010/05/half-heard-phone-conversations-reduce-performance

  CHAPTER 3 Concept Stories

  1 Jobs, Steven P., Scott Forstall, Greg Christie, Bas Ording, Imran Chaudhri, Stephen O. Lemay, Marcel Van Os, Freddy A. Anzures, and Mike Matas. Telephone Interface for a Portable Communication Device. Apple, Inc., Cupertino, CA (US), assignee. Patent 7860536B2. 28 Dec. 2010. http://1.usa.gov/1GPdPpK

  2 Opening trademark statement from Dragnet, a radio, TV, and motion picture series.

  3 Note: This is a fictionalized version of a business.

  CHAPTER 5 Usage Stories

  1 For full case study co-written by Lis Hubert, see Storymapping: A MacGyver Approach to Content Strategy, Parts 1-3 UX Matters http://bit.ly/1k2JckM

  CHAPTER 7 Using Your Story

  1 For more on creating storyboards and comics, see Cheng, Kevin. See What I Mean: How to Use Comics to Communicate Ideas. Brooklyn, N.Y.: Rosenfeld Media, 2012.

  2 Trendacosta, Katharine. “Brand New Concept Art of Back to the Future Part II’s 2015 Technology.” io9. http://io9.com/brand-new-concept-art-of-back-to-the-future-part-iis-20-1678913570

  3 For more on live-action improv, see Gray, Dave, Sunni Brown, and James Macanufo. Gamestorming: A Playbook for Innovators, Rulebreakers, and Changemakers. Sebastopol, Calif.: O’Reilly, 2010.

  4 While there are many different types of elevator pitch formats, I like to use this one: http://www.gamestorming.com/games-for-design/elevator-pitch/

  5 Vogelstein, Fred. “And Then Steve Said, ‘Let There Be an iPhone’.” The New York Times, 04 Oct. 2013.

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  How to Use This Book

  Frequently Asked Questions

  Foreword

  Introduction

  Chapter 1: Mapping the Story

  Making Things Go BOOM!

  Why Story?

  Chapter 2: How Story Works

  Story Has a Structure

  Building Products with Story

  Chapter 3: Concept Stories

  What Is a Concept Story?

  How Concept Stories Work

  Avoiding the Anticlimactic

  Supporting the Story

  Mapping a Concept Story

  Finding the Concept Story at FitCounter

  Chapter 4: Origin Stories

  What Is an Origin Story?

  How Origin Stories Work

  Mapping an Origin Story

  Case Study: Slack

  Case Study: FitCounter’s Origin Story

  Chapter 5: Usage Stories

  What Is a Usage Story?

  How Usage Stories Work

  Case Study: Twitter

  Mapping the Usage Story

  How Big Should Your Story Be?

  Case Study: FitCounter

  Chapter 6: Finding and Mapping Your Story

  Listen

  Use the Smile Test

  Measure

  Case Study: SmallLoans—a Cliffhanger

  Innovate: What If?

  Borrow: Stories as Proofs of Concept

  Chapter 7: Using Your Story

  Illustrate Your Story with Strategic Tools

  Write Your Story

  Act It Out

  Elevator Pitch

  Putting It All Together

  Chapter 8: Rules of Thumb

  Stories Are Character-Driven

  Characters Are Goal-Driven

  Goals Can Change

  Goals Are Measurable

  Conflict Is Key

  Math Is Fun

  Choose Your Own Adventure

  Make Things Go Boom!

  Index

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  Footnotes

 

 

 


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