The book will focus on how stories are used in all aspects of user experience activities. It will be organized into 15 chapters in 3 sections, looking at different aspects of storytelling.

Section 1: The importance of story in user experience
The first section introduces story, and grounds the reader in the vocabulary of storytelling. It covers the question of why stories should be considered part of user experience.

1. Reasons to tell stories.
   Why stories are important as part of UX work, and stories to explain how stories are a useful and effective tool for understanding and sharing research and design insights.
2. Stories start with listening.
   Listening to users, to others in the team, to management, to the stories in the data. Listening to the stories we tell ourselves about our work. Employing different kinds of listening.
3. What is a story?
   An introduction of some of the story genres that we will draw on and how different story forms work for different audiences/listeners. Also an introduction to the vocabulary and basic structure of a story, with examples to get readers familiar with the concepts.
4. The ethics of stories.
   A short discussion of the ethical issues, in how stories are chosen and used. This comes early in the book to remind everyone of the importance of using powerful tools carefully. It will briefly review the relationship of the storyteller to the sources of stories – and ethical issues from ethnographic and social research. And it will introduce the implications of the decisions we make to choose or avoid unpopular stories and the need to accurately represent “the data”.
5. Stories in user experience methodology.
   An overview of where stories fit into a user experience methodology. It will use a general user experience methodology and identify where (and why) stories fit into the work. It may also address some of the common models for understanding UX, including the Garrett layers, the ISO 13407 UCD cycle, etc. to show relationships there. This chapter is the bridge between the discussion of why stories are important (Section 1) and a more practical consideration of when to use them (Section 2).

Section 2: Using stories throughout a user experience project
The second section looks at when stories fit into a user experience process. It will look at how teams use stories in their research and design process, and how they share stories within the team.

1. Collecting stories (as part of research).
   Stories as part of all research: ethnography, contextual inquiry, interviews, and stories collected by “serendipity” during any research. The potential power of “anecdotal data.” Stories as a way of understanding the context and the people our products serve. Eliciting stories form the people our products serve – possibly also from the UX team. Will not focus on the methods themselves, but place storytelling in the context of other UX methods.
2. Selecting stories (as part of analysis).
   Choosing the stories you tell: how, when and why those choices are made. Ways to communicate research and design, build empathy and create a shared vision. What kinds of stories are useful in a UX process, different roles stories can play in understanding the audience and user experience. The relationship between “data” and “stories”, and the line between persuasion and manipulation.
3. Using stories (as part of design).
   Different kinds of stories and their generative, expressive, and representative roles in ideation and innovation. Stories as an antidote -- and companion -- to analytics and other user experience data.
4. Managing with stories.
   Stories as part of a management process. Until now, we have focused on the “story” of the product and its users. This chapter will look at stories as part of management communication. Managing audience belief by crafting and managing point-of-view.

Section 3: Crafting stories and putting them to work for you
The last section of the book will be the largest, focused on the how of storytelling, drawing on the previous chapters. These chapters will cover different ways of telling stories, focusing on the craft of storytelling in each medium.

1. The anatomy of a story.
   Introduction to the basic and classic patterns on which stories are constructed - a 'library' of story structures and how they can be used. Perhaps an example of a UX-related story told using several different patterns (and/or for several different purposes) – or a well-known story transformed in a similar way. Overview of how to shape a story to make your point, constructing stories from events, anecdotes and points of view.
2. Story telling.
   Oral storytelling, in small and large groups. Storytelling as performance.
3. Writing stories.
   Telling stories in reports and other written media. How to make the “voice” come through when you are not there to tell the story and you can’t always predict who’s reading.
4. Presenting stories.
   Storytelling and Powerpoint (or its friends). How to make the best of a limited situation, or fit stories into corporate expectations.
5. Visual stories.
   Using comics, storyboards and other visual media to communicate a story.
6. Turning stories loose.
   Making stories part of the (corporate or product) culture. Viral stories. Stories as marketing and brand. Telling stories others are compelled to tell themselves in some form.