tell me a story....

I am aware that we live in a world full of differences. Race, Religion, Temperaments, Opportunities. All of these seperate us from each other and create this huge dichotomy that we call the world.

But one thing pervades us all - the desire to succeed. One of the things each of us need to succeed are the right tools. My job is to help people make better tools. Yes, I am an IT consultant. Shock horror.

During my many tours of duty, I have come across many many illogical and terrible solutions that are so utterly devoid of any common sense. But smart people pervade these projects. So then, why the complete lack of common sense?

Lets take, for example, usability of screens. It is one of my passions, and also, sadly, one of the last things most organisations consider when designing a system. They talk about user-centric design, construct data models, use cases and all manner of documentation, but often leave out screen designs, layout and usability. In many cases, if they are designed, but there is no story behind them. Where is the narrative people?!?!

So, an explanation. Firstly, I was reading the following:
http://www.erasmatazz.com/library/Mind/Narrative_Thinking.html

And then I read this:
http://changingminds.org/disciplines/storytelling/telling_stories/narrative_thinking.htm

And now, I am reading this:
http://www.leeroybeach.com/id5.html

All of the above talk about how people percieve, organise and reuse information. The Narrative, as it turns out, is a highly effective and evolved way of communicating ideas and indeed convincing people.

Every process should be a narrative. Take the user through a story. Every screen should be carefully constructed plot point, if you will. Each plot point should in turn have clear details and highlight any important information. The payoff of the story should also be clear to the user. No one does anything without an expectation of a result, so give it to them. Satisfy the user.

No matter how different we are, following a narrative is just common sense.