CESYS513 - Crafting User Narratives

Course Description

In this course you will convert the raw data from your empathy fieldwork to create a powerful problem definition that sets the right context for brainstorming solutions. You will prepare a physical or virtual space in which you will thoughtfully unpack your observations to create a robust record of your experiences in the field.

You will apply methods to extract empathy data from first, second, and third person empathy experiences. You will then distill this data into a series of needs, insights, and surprises that will drive creativity and innovation later in the process. At the same time, you will analyze the empathy data to identify patterns and connections within and among your observations.

The resulting model is rich with not only qualitative data such as user personas, but also quantitative results that can be reviewed and shared throughout the remainder of the process. The act of constructing this model can bring into sharp focus the defining features of your problem.

The following courses are required to be completed before taking this course:

• Identifying and Framing a Challenge
• Gathering User Emotions

Faculty Author

Benefits to the Learner

• Identify and prepare an unpacking space for your emotional data
• Populate empathy templates for each experience
• Identify needs, insights, and surprises based on empathy templates
• Identify tensions, contradictions, consistencies, and synergies between and within the empathy templates
• Develop and analyze a variation of an affinity diagram known as an Emotional Data Relationship Map
• Create a flow of thoughts that culminates in a coherent goal for the system that addresses some aspect of the challenge
• Develop personas that empower you to envision innovative solutions

Target Audience

• Product managers
• Engineers
• User experience designers
• Program and project managers
• Consultants
• Systems analysts
• Marketers
• Entrepreneurs involved in product conception
• Individual contributors, managers and leaders at all levels of an organization who are involved in the design, development, or improvement of products, services, and infrastructure

Applies Towards the Following Certificates

• Design Thinking : Required Courses