If you read my article on user personas, you may recall that User stories allow a UX designer to focus on important functions and solutions from a specific persona’s perspective. Gaining the perspective of our users is essential to designing a user experience which meets their needs.

We are not our users, so our design thinking needs to be from the POV of our users. Taking the functional requirements of our Ahoy! app, I developed user stories from the perspective of potential users of the app.

User Stories in Context

To give more context to the user stories, here are the functional requirements of the Ahoy! app. These are important as we craft our user stories based on how a user would experience each of the features of the app.

Functional Requirements of the Ahoy! App:

• Splash Screen
• Account Creation / Login (including social login option)
• Navigation Menu
• Onboarding Sequence
• Home Screen
• Weather Dashboard with Real-Time Wind, Weather, and Algae Reports
• Search Weather Reports and Forecasts by Location
• Weather Reports and Forecasts Search Results
• Set Weather Conditions Preferences
• Weather Conditions Rating (based on set preferences)
• Recommendations to help users stay safe
• Profile with account information, saved locations, and saved weather conditions preferences

User Stories

As a user with many apps on my phone, I want to see a Splash screen, so that I know I am using the desired app.

As a new Ahoy! user, I want to Create an Account with either my email or social accounts, so that I can customize my experience.

As an existing Ahoy! user, I want to Login to my account with either email or social accounts, so that I can access my customized features.

As a user of Ahoy!, I want to use a Menu, so that I can easily navigate around the app.

As a new user to the Ahoy! app, I want to go through an Onboarding Sequence, so that I can get an overview of all the features and how to navigate the app.

As a user of Ahoy!, I want to access a Home page, so that I can easily find all the features of the app from one place.

As a recreational boater, I want to view a Weather Dashboard, so that I can get real-time wind conditions, weather conditions, and algae reports when I am boating.

As a boater who likes to travel along the coast, I want to Enter Locations, so that I can search the weather in different locations along the coast.

As a boater who searches locations for marine weather, I want to access Weather Report and Forecast Search Results, so that I can discover marine weather conditions for where I’d like to go boating.

As a recreational boater who has specific weather conditions I like to boat in, I want to Set Weather Conditions Preferences, so that I can find my ideal boating days.

As a boater who uses the Ahoy! app to set weather preferences, I want to get a Weather Conditions Rating, so that I can quickly know if it is a good day for me to go boating.

As a safety-conscious boater, I want to get Recommendations on boating and weather safety, so that I can stay safe on the water.

As a user of the Ahoy! app, I want to access my Profile, so that I can review my account information, saved locations, and weather conditions preferences.

Each of the user stories took the perspective of a specific user who would need the function. These stories help me as a UX designer to understand the functionality of the app from the perspective of the user.

You can view the entire example exercise below.