July - September 2013. Europe and USA.
Summary
User research project to better understand why and how people tell stories. I collected stories from friends and random people for 119 days. And collected 119 stories.
Background
Inspired by the results of my PhD research work, I decided to continue collecting user stories. Mainly because I find the listening process extremely empowering and because I learned so much from simply listening to stories.
My previous research showed that the power of stories is not just a buzzword used by advertisers. I wanted to find the essence of storytelling and use the research to design a storytelling product for the general audience.
Research goal
Understand why and how people tell stories and if there are some general patterns. Furthermore, my goal was to understand the common structure, the essence of stories that stick.
Methodology and methods
Interviews. Mobile ethnography.
Outcomes
- Edgar - the visual storytelling tool for makers & crafters
- Research incorporated throughout Edgar - our VC backed startup
- Series of talks and workshops on Storytelling for UX (USA, Denmark, Netherlands, India, Austria, Slovenia, Croatia)
- Talk at Interaction 14 in Amsterdam
"Why?" The most important question.
I didn't use strict structure when hunting for stories. I simply started with friend and family. After a couple of weeks in Slovenia, we moved to the US with Marusa. There we traveled the coast from Seattle to San Francisco. Collecting stories became serendipitous, I was simply open and interacting with people we met.
Though, there was one question I always asked. Why do you do what you do? This was the only common denominator, the rest was done on the fly.
Lessons learned
In my IxD talk, I talk about the most important lessons learned.