Storytelling for User Experience. Crafting Stories for Better Design

Stories can describe a context or situation.
Stories can illustrate problems.
Stories can be a launching point for a design discussion.
Stories can explore a design concept.

Stories can be a natural and flexible way of communicating. Some of the values often attributed to stories include their effectiveness as a way to help people remember, as a way to persuade, and as a way to entertain

They help us gather (and share) information about users, tasks, and goals.
They put a human face on analytic data.
They can spark new design concepts and encourage collaboration and innovation.
They are a way to share ideas and create a sense of shared history and purpose.
They help us understand the world by giving us insight into people who are not just like us.
They can even persuade others of the value of our contribution.
Here’s one way that stories can be part of user experience design.

a better listener, so you have users' words to tell their stories
a better observer, so you can include the real context of use in your stories
an ethical storyteller, knowing how to craft stories (like personas) that are archetypically true even if they are composites
an innovative designer, using stories to help teams see problems and solutions in new ways
a person who people enjoy listening to because your stories are both interesting and meaningful for your projects