IFI7313.DT Interaction Design Methods course in Tallinn University, 15 February 2018

1. User Stories in
Interaction Design
IFI7313.DT Interaction Design Methods

2. Cohn, M. (2004). User stories applied: For agile
software development. Boston, MA: Addison-
Wesley.

3. What are user stories?
• User stories are simple, clear and brief descriptions of
functionality that will be valuable for real users
• User stories are typically used in agile software development
methods such as XP and Scrum
• User stories build a bridge between the users, designers and
the developers

4. User story format
"As a <role>, I want <goal/desire>”
Example:
Search for customers
As a user, I want to search for my customers by their first and
last names.

5. Good user story
• Independent
• Negotiable
• Valuable to users and customers
• Estimatable
• Small
• Testable
(Cohn, 2004)

6. Other user story formats
• "As a <role>, I want <goal/desire> so that <benefit>”
• "In order to <receive benefit> as a <role>, I want <goal/
desire>”
• "As <who> <when> <where>, I <what> because <why>.”
• "As a <role>, I can <action with system> so that <external
benefit>"
(Wikipedia, 2015)

7. Examples

10. Example user stories:
New Tweet window
1. As a user, I want to write a tweet and post it to Twitter
2. As a user, I want to see how many characters I have left from
allowed tweet length
3. As a user, I want to browse for a photo and add to my tweet
4. As a user, I want to change the Twitter account I am using for
posting a tweet

11. Guidelines

12. Guidelines
• Start with goal stories
• Break large stories into smaller pieces
• Write closed stories (that finish with completed goal)
• Keep the UI out as long as possible
• Include user roles in the stories
• Write for one user
• Write in active voice
(Cohn, 2004)

14. Apps for writing user stories

18. Development process

19. Writing user stories
• User stories are written by actual users or proxy users
(stakeholders, designers, etc)
• User stories are discussed and edited in team
• Finalized user stories are accepted by product owner

20. Planning releases and iterations
• Every use story is assigned a number of story points (more
points = more time to implement)
• Every iteration has the same limited number of story points
• Stories are sorted to iterations based on story points, iteration
size and internal requirements

21. Tasks and tickets
• User stories can be divided into several tasks
• Tasks are created as enhancement tickets by the product
owner and assigned to developers
• After successful testing of implemented enhancement tickets,
user stories are closed

22. Minimum Viable Product

23. Gothelf, J. (2013). Lean UX: Applying Lean
Principles to Improve User Experience. Sebastopol,
CA: O'Reilly Media.

24. Minimum Viable Product
• Is there a need for the solution I’m designing?
• Is there value in the solution and features I’m offering?
• Is my solution usable?
(Gothelf, 2013)

25. References
• Cohn, M. (2004). User Stories Applied For Agile Software Development.
Boston, MA: Addison Wesley.
• Leinonen, T., Toikkanen, T., & Silfvast, K. (2008). Software as Hypothesis:
Research-Based Design Methodology. In Proceedings of the Tenth Anniversary
Conference on Participatory Design 2008 (pp. 61–70). Indianapolis, IN:
Indiana University.
• User story. (n.d.). In Wikipedia. Retrieved February 26, 2015, from http://
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_story

26. Photos
• Rool Paap, http://www.flickr.com/photos/roolrool/4468175996/

27. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0
International License. To view a copy of this license, visit
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
Hans Põldoja
hans.poldoja@tlu.ee
IFI7313.DT Interaction Design Methods
https://ifi7313.wordpress.com
Tallinn University
School of Digital Technologies