Six steps for adapting your design solutions to the right context

2. ‘User Stories’ or ‘Working out what your end-users will need to be able to do’
In software development, one way of ensuring we keep users needs at the fore throughout this entire process is to set up a selection of ‘user stories’ that essentially explain what each type of user whether it’s an end-user or the role of a UNHCR staff member needs to be able to do with a solution in order to address the challenge. These stories critically outline not only what a user might want to do, but why they do it – what they want to achieve. This helps move away from long lists of things people want to do but really honing in on why to ensure that it all stacks up. This type of approach can be – more or less, I feel – applied to many different types of innovations and isn’t only suited to web development. Whether this is creating a process or using absolutely no tech at all, we can still let user needs and intentions guide our approach to solution design. It defines the parameters, making sure we’re not adding a whole load of superfluous elements that often emerge in top-down approaches. Also, you might want to go back and revisit your user stories later on based on the information you’re getting from other aspects here.