Book Review: The User’s Journey: Storymapping Products That People Love

Reviewing the Story Arc

You are likely familiar with the idea of a story arc, which is illustrated in Figure 1. The formula is commonly understood and works. Here is a refresher:

• exposition—A story first introduces a situation and the main character’s goal.
• inciting incident—Something occurs that impedes the main character’s progress toward a goal and creates an emotional response.
• rising action—The main character makes a journey to correct a wrong that is preventing the achievement of a goal.
• crisis—At the point of no return, the character encounters a dilemma, the outcome of which alters the outcome of the story.
• climax, or resolution—At this emotional high-point, the outcome is revealed.
• falling action, or denouement—This phase provides closure and the release of climactic tension.
• end—At the end of a story, the character has changed as a result of his or her journey.

Image source: The User’s Journey: Storymapping Products That People Love

It might seem counterintuitive that we would build a crisis into a user’s journey, then continue past the story’s climax—which might equate to a person’s successful use of the product or a conversion of some kind. But the story arc does provide a useful template upon which to build realistic, meaningful user journeys. For example, in the case of a hypothetical SaaS accounting application, an inciting incident might be a small-business owner’s realizing that he needs a better way of tracking expenses and income. The rising action could be researching, comparing, and selecting a software solution, then the crisis might correspond to onboarding. The climax might be the successful creation of an account and integrating a bank account. However, stopping there wouldn’t really tell the user’s whole story, For the experience to be meaningful to the user, it is necessary for the user to undergo some change—the denouement of the story. Perhaps the user finds that his days are much more productive as a result of this journey to find the hypothetical SaaS application.

This phenomenon could be useful in explaining why so many mobile apps simply do not have much staying power beyond a few weeks. A statistic from 2018 suggests that the average app loses 77% of new users just three days after installation. Perhaps many of these apps simply do not offer sufficient engagement to support a longer relationship with the user.

Frictionless Apps Might Not Delight Users

Lichaw provides several anecdotes about how the use of story can help in designing user experiences. A particularly good example is the onboarding experience for Twitter. In this example, a user does not simply sign up and begin tweeting. During signup, Twitter takes the user through a journey during which the user discloses interests, starts following people, and so on. Only after the user has completed this onboarding journey does he reach the climatic point of the story, when he has converted to a user, changed his behavior, and begins tweeting.

Frequently, when companies are developing new software or services, they consider it desirable that the onboarding experience be as easy—even mindless—as possible. However, while it is true that we should avoid presenting obstacles to a user who is signing up, introducing small challenges can actually create a more engaging experience that keeps users coming back. Consider the example of video games: those that are too easy are typically less interesting than those that introduce some challenges to overcome.

Similarly, story can help add an element of gamification to certain user experiences. While a user might not appreciate encountering either obstacles or a mini-crisis when using an ATM, introducing small amounts of friction—such as small and very achievable challenges—can give users a sense of accomplishment that keeps them engaged and makes an experience sticky. For example, Waze is a perfectly fine map app, but for people who actively participate in identifying accidents or traffic conditions, these small crises make them active participants in determining the outcome of their commute story.

Conclusion

I think this book will be very helpful in taking my journey-mapping skills to the next level. I look forward to using this technique on a few projects I have in flight right now, applying it to scenarios involving multiple personas with unique perspectives.

While the examples in the book get a bit repetitive, they are useful in seeing how you can use story in a variety of scenarios. This book is somewhat advanced, so I recommend it for UX professionals who have already had some experience with journey mapping. They will definitely see the benefits of this book.