Published on | Prototyping: From UX to Front End — Medium Jon Chen

When I was a kid, my father used to always tell me stories about his adventures from his teenage years to his young adult years. They were awesome to hear because of the craziness and risks that he took with his friends. It was very inspiring. Because of that, I’ve been wanting to travel to multiple parts of the world to experience the different cultures and lives of other people. Stories were what made my childhood, but now storytelling has made a difference in my young professional experiences.

A few months ago, I began my career as a UX Designer. I took an intensive course at General Assembly learning about the different processes to lessen the frustrations and anxieties people face every day. During the course, there was one part of the process that stood out to me. It was known as storyboarding. At first, I was confused and didn’t know what was so significant about this step. I soon realized that it’s important in being able to communicate the user’s journey through storytelling to allow product managers, engineers, and stakeholders better understand why we decided to design in certain ways. For product managers and stakeholders, they want to know how do your designs meet business goals. For engineers, they want to know the different interactions and if it’s plausible for them to actually create it. It was fascinating. Soon enough, I saw how important it was to not only my process, but to my UX philosophy as well. Storytelling became a main part of how I define UX and my thought process in each of my design sprints.

Recently, I discovered something pretty amazing about storytelling. It makes a huge impact on our lives every day. It help us make decisions we never thought of making beforehand. I recently read an old medium article by Julie Zhuo, the VP of Product at Facebook, about writing. She wrote about how three years ago she made a New Years Resolution to start blogging and publish once a week. Her blog told a story about the thoughts and motivations she’s had to make this resolution happen. It was so moving that I really wanted to write more and more about my experiences and stories. That is the power of storytelling. It drives and motivates us every single day: the reason, the purpose of why we do certain things and why we work in certain industries.

So how does storytelling help in more professional ways? Storytelling has been a great asset to me in interviews, networking, and designing.

Storytelling in Interviewing:
When I first completed the UX immersive course at General Assembly, I had a difficult time during interviews. I didn’t know how to approach design interviews. I started reading articles and learning from other designers on how to be better at interviewing. Storytelling seemed to be a key component. In every interview, recruiters and hiring managers want to know more about you. They want to see if you’re the right fit skillfully and culturally. With every interview question asked, there’s always a story for the answer. For example, a common question I get in my interviews is “Why do you want to work for this company?.” This is where you have the opportunity to talk about the passions about the company that you relate to, your story of who you are and how you can be significant to the company. Start storytelling in your interviews, it will make a difference.

Storytelling in Networking:
Networking is a great way to meet new people in the same field/industry you are currently working in or want to work in. I’ve met many great designers at design events. When you’re trying to connect with people, people want to get to know you and help you, but you also have to show interested in their experience as well. What’s the best way to do that? As someone who wants to connect with other designers, I’m always constantly asking about their story from how they first got into design to their experiences leading up to the present. Many people love sharing their stories to others. They want to be a part of a world where they can provide their experiences to help others grow and learn. You’d be surprised on who’s willing to take the time to get to know you and help you.

Storytelling in Designing:
As a UX Designer, I constantly see the importance of storytelling in every step of the process, from user research to the interactive prototype. In user research, I want to learn more about the users. I want to hear their stories of the frustrations and satisfactions they have so that I can create designs that will fill in those voids of frustration and continue to satisfy those satisfactions. It’s amazing to see when designs make a difference in the lives of others.

But once these designs are all completed, the most important thing is to make sure that it benefits the business. The best way to do that is tell the story behind your designs. Why did you make these decisions? What are the benefits of these features? Can these changes generate revenue? As a designer, those are some of the many questions that are constantly asked. I have to not only think about how it can benefit the user, but how it also meets the goals of the business. The best way to answer those questions is by telling that small story of how you came to the conclusions you made. Product managers and engineers will better understand how important your designs can make a difference to users and the business.

I truly believe that storytelling can make a difference in not only your job search and design, but also in every single part of our lives. The way you tell stories and how vulnerable you are can make a difference in someone’s life, whether it’s the people you work for or just a random person who’s using your product. People are here to help others in so many different ways. Let’s tell more stories and make a change in the world.

Storytelling in the Job Search and Design was originally published in Prototyping: From UX to Front End on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Storytelling in the Job Search and Design

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