Chapter 6 Storytelling as a Research Tool in a User-Centred Design Process
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Abstract
User-centred design is an approach that focuses on the needs and desires of users of products, information or systems, instead of privileging formal or technical aspects. To get designers closer to users, storytelling is a valuable research tool to understand subjective aspects (such as the memorable significance that users assigned to a product’s possession and use) of the relationship between the user and products. The inclusion of storytelling as a research tool in a postgraduate Design and Architecture research course (University of São Paulo, Brazil) was seen as a way to move students toward the unusual aspect of feelings about some products. In the classes, the theory-related aspects of storytelling were presented as a part of research tools for different classes using Empathic Design references. After this theoretical part, some students applied the tool in their research, analysed the results and evaluated the methods and process. I highlight three works developed during the discipline in order to demonstrate that storytelling is an important tool to be used in user-centred design approaches as a way to break apart researchers’ stereotypes and prejudices.