Matt Fehlberg, Francesca Serpollini, Mackenzie Etherington, Alex Elton-Pym
To understand user needs, it is important to examine people’s practices in detail, including the environment in which they use services. Direct experience storyboards is a method that combines the advantages of systematic observation, direct experience, documentation and storytelling. The method is useful for contextually sensitive situations where it may not be possible or convenient to conduct direct-user research, such as hospitals, libraries, museums and other public and private institutions with similar characteristics. By acting out a given scenario in an authentic setting, designers can capture both positive and negative aspects of a user’s experience, and collect impressions of what it is like to interact with a product or service.
Continued on pages 64–65 of Design. Think. Make. Break. Repeat.