Critical Experiences

Create a Narrative / User Journey for your Project

“Like an absorbing story, a well-designed product, place, or image unfolds over time. It helps us create memories and forge connections.” – Ellen Lupton, Design is Storytelling

This activity has two parts and is designed to help you create a narrative for how your audience might experience or interact with your work. Having a clear narrative / user journey can help you make something that engages with the intended audience with more intentionality and impacts.

SOLO (10 minutes): use storytelling techniques and prompts to map an end-to-end user journey / narrative

IN PAIRS (10 minutes): find a partner to test your narrative

//Recommended Format & Materials

PART 1: SOLO ACTIVITY

INSTRUCTIONS: Use each step to take notes and then compile into a complete narrative at Step 6.
- Step 1: Who is your user / viewer?
  - Give them a name, age, background, mood they are in that day.
  - Why would THIS person care about your project? What is happening in their life that makes them curious enough to show up?
- Step 2: Before the Experience
  - Where were they when they first heard about your project? What did the communication look like?
  - How do they encounter it? Do they stumble upon it while doing something else?
  - Are they nervous? Excited? Skeptical?
- Step 3: The Initial Encounter
  - What do they see first? What do they hear? Smell? Feel?
  - Who is around them?
- Step 4: The Experience (during)
  - What is the first action they take?
  - What do they click, touch, watch, hear?
  - Do they interact with a performer, object, interface, or another participant?
  - What moment could break their attention? What moment could overwhelm them? What moment could bore them? What moment might excite them?
- Step 5: Aftermath
  - How does the user know it’s over?
  - What do they physically leave with, if anything? An object? A memory? A feeling? A new connection?
  - Do they talk to anyone afterward?
  - How have they changed?
- Step 6: Create a piece of writing in first person (“I”) or second (“you”) that explains the encounter with your work from before it begins until after it is over.
  - EX Starter Sentences:
    - “I woke up this morning in a ____ mood . . .”
    - ““I was scrolling on Instagram when . . .”
  - Should Include:
    - How the user first encountered the project
    - Why the user cared enough to engage
    - Sensory Details (sound, touch, smell, sight, etc)
    - Emotional Arc (ex: (nervous → curious → delighted → changed)
    - One moment of surprise or transformation
    - What they do afterward, physically or emotionally

PART 2: NARRATIVE TESTING IN PAIRS

Step 1: Set the Scene / Establish Roles
- Partner A briefly shares the project’s premise and the persona (name, age, background) with Partner B.
  - Partner B will ask whatever question they need in order to understand their role of the persona moving through the experience.
- Step 2: Narrative Reading
  - Partner A should slowly read the narrative journey. Going step by step. Pausing briefly in between each step.
  - Partner B as the persona, will also be able to kindly and respectfully pause or block the progression of the narrative if there are missing details, confusion points, or unstated assumptions after.
  - If the narrative is blocked, Partner A will need to revise the narrative and clarify missing steps.
  - Once the steps are cleared up, Partner B will communicate to Partner A to proceed to the next step.
  - Example:
    Partner A: The parent opens the Surrogate app on the phone.
    Partner B: I can’t open the app because I don’t know how I got it or what the icon looks like. Did I download it? Am I paying for this?
    Partner A: (revises this part of the narrative on the spot, until it is clear) “Earlier this morning, you receive a text message that says ‘Your Surrogate experience begins today. Download the Surrogate Control App here. When you click it, you see a screen that reads: ________. You press. I consent, enter your legal name, and proceed to the home page.”
    Partner B: Ok, I am now on the homepage, please continue.
- Step 3: Debrief
  - Partner B gives feedback that identifies areas that could use more attention, ie:
    - Persona: Clarity of persona
    - Discovery: How the persona found the work
    - Initial Encounter / Onboarding: How the persona got plugged into the experience
    - Motivation: Why the persona continued through the experience
    - Ending: How the persona knew it was over
    - Transformation: How the persona is changed
    - Accessibility, Potential Failpoints, etc
  - If there is time, you can also discuss how the entire experience aligns with the project statement.
- Switch!