Narrative and design for wellbeing: a user-centered approach

The narratives that we have about our lives can affect our wellbeing. The Products and services that we own or use can play a role in these narratives (Jordan, Bardill, Herd and Grimaldi 2020) – the car that says "I am a success", the toy that says "I am a good parent" or the customer-care that lets me know that "I am not important.”

In an exploratory study, 41 undergraduate students described experiences with two different products or services – one that enabled and one that failed to enable a desired narrative. These 82 case studies were analysed to explore concepts relevant to narrative in the context of product and service use.

We identify six different ways in which a product or service can enable a narrative, evaluate Jung’s archetypes as a means of narrative classification, and explore the roles of products and users in enabling stories. The implications for user research and design are explored.