Robin Blandford [ ByteSurgery.com ]

18/07/08 It’s all about the individual. Meet Jeff.

CHICAGO, UNITED STATES - This video came into my Google Reader shared items this morning from Will Knott. This is the best example I’ve seen of breaking a BIG topic like (global poverty), down to an individual. It’s all about the individual.

It is an incredibly powerful way of bringing things down to the level of an individual.

1. People respond to problems they can fathom.
2. Statistics put you in analytical mode. Instead use emotional mode.

This is a great example of why you write user stories about individuals for your website.

Compare this:

• Run reports on up to 1000 pieces of equipment.
• View hours logged hours and usage counts for up to 6 months.
• Predict annual replacement rates of equipment.
• Attach up to 5 messages to each piece of equipment.

Scratch that! Now move from analytical thinking to emotional when you read the next piece. Time to meet your first hero, here’s one of my many user stories I’ve written:

Meet Jeff, a regional stores officer.
Jeff uses D4H to run reports on equipment usage. He is permissioned to see every climbing rope use, vehicle mileage and safety gear expiry dates. Using D4H, Jeff can predict the replacement dates based on the hours logged by every team. He assigns a value to every item in a team’s inventory and estimates a purchase cost across the entire organisation. Safety is a priority, team’s can leave notes for Jeff and themselves on each equipment record, commenting on required maintenance tasks or damage sustained.

Can you visualise it? What did Jeff look like? Where was he sitting? How was he dressed? Now you have a vivid image in your head you have used emotion and you are far more likely to act on this information than before.

Remember that when you are writing copy for your own app.

-Robin.

Tags: analytical, copy, emotion, the girl, usecases, user stories, writing

1 Comment

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20/07/08 Joe Drumgoole

She faces bigger problems than that http://www.xlml.com/aehso/2008/07/16/money-as-debt/

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