Developing and communicating your design

Method 1: Storyboards

What

A storyboard shows a sequence of user interactions coupled with a narrative.

Why

Storyboards help you visualize interactions and relationships that might exist between a user and a solution in the context of the user's full experience.

How to do it

1. Gather any documents that describe the different scenarios in which users interact with your service.
2. Sketch scenes that visually depict a user interacting with the service, including as much context as possible. For example: Are they on the move? Where are they? What else is in their environment?
3. Annotate each scene with a description of what the user is attempting to do. Describe what general feeling or experience you want the user to have.
4. Review this storyboard with your team and stakeholders for feedback. Iterate until the storyboard represents a shared vision of the scenario and progression of scenes.
5. Create a polished version of the storyboard if you plan to use it for future work or in public contexts.

Time required

1 to 2 days depending on the complexity of the scenario

Method 2: Task flow analyses

What

A task flow analysis is a step-by-step diagram showing how a user interacts with a system to reach a goal.

Why

Task flow analyses help:

• Validate your understanding of users’ goals, common scenarios, and tasks
• Illustrate the overall flow of tasks through which a user progresses to accomplish a goal
• Surface obstacles in the way of users achieving their goal

The diagram traces a user’s possible paths through sequences of tasks and decision points to meet their goal. The tasks and decision points represent steps taken by both the user and the system. A task flow analysis differs from a user scenario, which is a narrative story that provides context for a persona.

How to do it

1. Based on user research, identify target users' goals that need to be analyzed.
2. For each goal, identify:
   • Common scenarios
   • Tasks and decisions that the user or system will perform in each scenario.

Do not assume you and your stakeholders share the same understanding of the tasks. Make the flow of tasks explicit in the diagram, so that you can check your understanding with users in later steps.

1. Produce a diagram that includes each task and decision point that a user might encounter on their way toward their goal. A common approach results in a flow chart of boxes for tasks and decision points and arrows showing directionality and dependencies among tasks. The diagram should cover the common scenarios identified in step 2.
2. Present the diagram to a subject matter expert who knows the task well enough to check for accuracy.
3. In collaboration with users and subject matter experts, annotate the task flow diagram to pinpoint areas of interest, risk, or potential frustration.

Time required

2 to 3 hours per user goal

Method 3: User scenarios

What

A user scenario tells a story about how users interact with your product, service, or website. User scenarios provide context for personas’ experience in a narrative form.

Why

User scenarios help you communicate a design idea by telling a story about a specific interaction for a specific user. Create user scenarios to identify:

• A user’s motivations for using your product, service, or website
• The user's expectations and goals

User scenarios help you consider how:

• A user's needs might vary depending on their context
• A diverse group of users in the same scenario might have different needs.

By constructing user scenarios, you can help answer questions about the accessibility of your product, service, or website.

How to do it

1. Determine a few personas or user types to focus on. Consider what scenarios might be the most critical for each user.For example, in what scenarios would users face limited accessibility?
2. For each user, list out their:
   • Goals
   • Motivations
   • Context or environment in which they are interacting with your product, service, or website
3. Put the details you came up with in step 2 into a story format that includes:
   • Who they are (persona or user type)
   • Why they are using your site (motivations)
   • Where they are (context)
   • What they need to do (goal)
   • How they go about accomplishing the goal (tasks)

The more realistic details you add, the richer and more useful your story becomes for helping to understand the user's behaviors.

1. Share the user scenarios that you have written with the user group and other team members for validation, feedback, and refinement.
2. Examine your product, service, or website using these user scenarios. Identify opportunities to make adjustments that would improve users' experiences.

Time required

1 to 3 hours