xd Studio: Motivation

a woman and man kissing an infant
doctor looking at x-ray with patient

“So there I was…”

Any story that starts like this is bound to have a memorable finish. For example…

“…waiting for my daughter’s softball game to start and the wi-fi kept dropping…”

“…listening to my mother lying in her hospital bed, telling me she loves me for the last time in her life…”

“…mowing the yard and suddenly a rock flies up and puts a gash in my left shin…”

“…sitting on a couch at Starbucks and this stranger sits next to me to ask if they could buy me a drink…”

People’s life stories are seamlessly-stitched-together scenes, held together by designer threads. Memorable stores are written when the threads designers create are durable enough to hold the fabric of scenes. Stories of regret and frustration are made when products, services, and systems fail to create relevant and meaningful experiences. People are both feelers and thinkers, so experience design outcomes must account for both people’s needs as well as their emotions.

In xd Studio: Storytelling, we examine how to interpret people’s stories and how to create outcomes that make those stories worth telling.

Theory-Infused Experience Design

In xd Studio: Storytelling, we apply Deci and Ryan’s Self-Determination Theory and Ajzen’s Theory of Planned Behavior to guide and underpin research and design. We use Aspects of Experiences for Design to guide designing for relational experiences.

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