This document discusses the keys to successful user experience (UX) design for the Zarion Allocate product. It emphasizes storytelling, visualization, and empathy. Storytelling involves understanding users' experiences as ongoing narratives and representing use cases as stories about people rather than abstract processes. Visualization techniques like storyboarding and interactive prototyping were used to bring the stories to life. Empathy was the guiding principle to genuinely connect supervisors using the product to the personnel they manage. Through these methods, the client gained an understanding of UX design's role in developing the user storyworld and experience.

2. Storytelling, Vizualisation and Empathy
The Keys to Successful UX for the Zarion Allocate Product

3. Overview
1. Introduction
2. Project Background
3. Storytelling
4. Vizualisation
5. Empathy
6. Questions

4. 1. Introduction

5. At your service...making customers happier through Design: Séamus T. Byrne
About
Graphic Mint are a User Experience (UX) Design
and Innovation agency based in Dublin, Ireland.
Our mission is to design meaningful experiences
between people, processes and technology.
We create lasting, memorable journeys across
your brand, products and services to ensure
customers will love interacting with your business.

6. Graphic Mint Team

7. At your service...making customers happier through Design: Séamus T. Byrne
Séamus T. Byrne
● Twitter: @SeamusByrne
● Co-Founder & Director of UX
at Graphic Mint
● Former IxDA Board Member
○ Director of Global Events
● Co Chair for Interaction 12
Design Event Planner
● MA Multimedia, BA Sociology
About

8. 2. Project Background

9. At your service...making customers happier through Design: Séamus T. Byrne
Zarion Allocate
● Irish Company
● 20 Years providing SaaS
● Their Allocate product is used by
thousands of users for work
allocation and capacity
management
● Required help with UX
About

10. 3. Storytelling

11. Storytelling the User’s World
“We experience life as a series of ongoing narratives, as
conflicts, characters, beginnings, middles and ends”
– Dr. Walter Fischer
It is through the sharing of stories that communities build
their identities, pass on tradition and construct meaning

12. User Experiences
are Stories

13. Interlude: UI ≠ UX*
*Client Education
1. User Experience relies on stories
2. Clients quickly realise stories don’t
have instant impact on User Interface
3. We discover what they really wanted
was help with their UI
4. We proceed with UX + UI

14. Stories are
about People

15. Use Cases ≠ Stories*
*They abstract the humanity but are a Good Start
Stakeholder stories from Domain Research
● Supervisor reviews work capacity
● Supervisor reviews team capacity
● Supervisor allocates workitems (manual)
● Supervisor monitors workitems

16. Journey: Supervisor reviews work capacity

17. Journey: Supervisor reviews team capacity

18. Journey: Supervisor reviews team capacity

19. Journey Supervisor allocates workitems

20. Journey: Supervisor allocates workitems

21. Journey: Supervisor monitors workitems

22. Stories are
about People

23. People: Shona the Supervisor
Name: Shona O’Reilly
Age 42
Title: Service Manager
Role: Supervisor, Leader
Company Financial Company X
Team Retail
Job Goal: Claims should be managing that person back to work
Description Shona manages a team of 8 people and is responsible for making sure all
work on her team is allocated and completed on time.
She would eventually like to be promoted to the role of Service Coordinator
Assessor
“ Reassigning portfolios is
the panacea for all our users
” – Shona

24. Stories have
a setting

25. Places: Shona’s Work Environment

26. Places: Shona’s Context is Everything

27. We went to Shona,
We listened to Shona.
We had to tell her story...

28. ...visually!

29. 4. Visualization

30. Storyboarding
During Framework Design, we ideated
upon many stories: real and blue sky.

32. Interactive Paper Prototyping
● Real-time collaboration
● Efficient problem resolution
● Kick Tires on core behaviours
● Especially effective for complexity interactions, micro
interactions and state changes

33. Where Stories Become Interactive
The point of view shifts from 3rd to 1st person

37. 5. The E word

38. Empathy (there, I said it!)
● Focused on one principle: to help genuinely connect the
supervisor to their personnel
● We humanised the product to reduce anonymity.
● It created an empathy between supervisors and
personnel by simulating face-to-face interactions.
● “It’s been quite powerful in its effect of bringing that
team together.”

39. The Keys to UX Success
● Tell the story of the people who use the product
● Visualize their storyworld with storyboards, ecosystem
maps and product prototypes
● Focus on one key principle based on true understanding
of the user which will form the DNA of the design

40. Educating the client
● User Experience Design is a backdrop upon which to
write the storyworld of the people who use the products
and services
● It is the catalyst to great UI Design
● This project helped Client ralise the value of User
Experience

41. 6. Questions?

42. 6.Questions?
Thank You!