"The trick to adding imagery to a story lies in using just the right amount. Like character details, if you fill the story with too many images, it can overwhelm the audience. Or you can have the wrong imagery distracting the audience into focusing on something that doesn’t support the point you are trying to make." (Quesenbery et al., 2010, pp. 370)
I appreciated this excerpt because it gives clear direction on how to use imagery, character, and, in my opinion, all of the other story ingredients as well. For context, "Images are the stuff that the audience imagines as they listen to the words and events of the story"(pp. 368). As someone who's crafting stories, I have to be preoccupied with which ingredients I'm using, and how much of each I'm using. The authors were smart to use the metaphor of 'ingredients' - making stories is a lot like cooking. It's also noteworthy that, while storytelling is useful as a means to achieve a greater UX goal, UX strategies are applied into crafting the story itself. If I am designing a mobile app, I would want it to be devoid of clutter and have only the things that the audience needs to see in order to accomplish their goal. Likewise, with storytelling, I should make sure pack too much into my story and thus overwhelm my audience.
"The most common way of adding perspective is by having the main character of your story do the talking. What this character says will then frame the main points in the story. This is because every character represents a different set of life experiences." (Quesenbery et al., 2010, pp. 341)
This excerpt also gives clear direction: perspective directly corresponds to protagonist. Once I've figured out from what perspective my story should be told from, I should then develop my protagonist accordingly. Want to tell the story from another angle? Create another protagonist. One question that came to mind when reading this section is, "in UX design, where might I need to tell the same story from multiple perspectives?" I didn't think the authors answered this question, so my answer Is that multiple perspectives can be necessary in order to fully represent the anticipated users. Sometimes designers get a little narrow minded and design for one specific slice of their audience, causing potential inconveniences for the rest of the audience. A user story told from a new perspective can resolve this.
"Saying “I remember the 60s” to people born in 1985 means that their starting place for the 60s is what they’ve seen in the media—riots, hippies, marches, and the moon landing. Saying “I remember the 60s” to people born in the 50s or 60s mean they will at first refer back to their own experiences of the 60s, which are childhood experiences—TV shows, the big deal about integrating schools, classic GI Joe/Barbie, and possibly the moon landing." (Quesenbery et al., 2010, pp. 362)
There are some exceptions to this excerpt. Because my parents were born in 1960 and 1961, meaning my 'starting place for the 60's' is what my parents have been telling me about it since I was little. Therefore, even though I wasn't born in the 60's, hearing them mentioned evokes thoughts of certain TV shows and toys, not hippies and riots. Nevertheless, I agree with the principle that this excerpt is trying to communicate - as a storyteller you have to know your audience and realize that your story will affect people differently.
