User Experience Design is one of those exotic (to me) areas that I know almost nothing about. Yet, it makes sense that “user experience” would suggest storytelling. Whitney Quesenbery is a practitioner who uses storytelling in User Experience Design. I’m excited about her upcoming book. She is currently working with Kevin Brooks on a book on “Storytelling in User Experience Design” for Rosenfeld Media. I’m so tickled to bring you her thoughts on yet another fascinating application of storytelling.

Bio: (From the Web site Whitney Interactive Design) Whitney Quesenbery is a user researcher, user experience practitioner, and usability expert with a passion for clear communication. She has been in the field since 1989, helping companies from The Open University to Sage Software to the National Cancer Institute develop usable web sites and applications.

She is the director of the UPA Usability in Civic Life project and has been appointed to the US Elections Assistance Commission’s guidelines development committee, where she works to ensure the usability of voting systems. She represented UPA on an Advisory Committee for the Access Board (TEITAC), working to update US accessibility regulations.

She has served as the President of UPA (Usability Professionals’ Association), Manager of the STC Usability and User Experience (UUX), and a member of the Executive Committee for UXNet, as well as an active participant in local usability groups. In 2005 she was given the STC President’s Award for her work on communities in membership organizations, and in 2007, she was honored with a UPA President’s Award and as a Fellow of the STC.

Her most recent publication is a chapter on “Storytelling and Narrative” in The Personas Lifecycle, by Pruitt and Adlin. She’s also proud that one of her articles won an award as a Society for Technical Communication (STC) Outstanding Journal Article, and that her chapter “Dimensions of Usability” in Content and Complexity turns up on so many course reading lists. She is currently working with Kevin Brooks on a book on Storytelling in User Experience Design for Rosenfeld Media.

Q&A with Whitney Quesenbery, Question 1:

Q: You note in your blog that “the real value of stories in user experience design is that they can move us into the future.” Can you elaborate a bit on how stories do that and perhaps given an example of how you have used story in user experience design to move people into the future?

A: I meant something very simple. Although user experience stories are built on insights from research, their purpose is to help create something new. Often, they explore how a new or updated product can change an unsatisfactory experience into a good one. They describe a possible future condition, and in doing so help it become a reality.

This is not all user experience stories, of course. Sometimes, we use stories to present a current or past situation. But the reason we spend time thinking about current experience is to be able to create new experiences — and move us into the future.