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it's been about an hour since I completed Alexander Chee's wkshp #1: a thread about some thoughts I had about things he discussed that relate to narrative in user experience research but do not originate from the cadre of white UX-y dudes. Mostly for me - 1/x
invisible stories might be the ones with which we have the most familiarity, and there are dependencies around how stories are told out loud versus on the page. both assert an audience but the in-moment details may shift responsively to accommodate who is listening in-person. 2/x
one thing researchers in UX are not particularly good at - partly because of who pays our checks and partly because the nature of the work - is understanding the ethical implications of taking subject matter that is a gathering of others and their own experience. 3/x
it's possible to take without permission when someone has given consent. it's possible to inflict and exacerbate real pain in the world by not reconciling the intersection of who you were then, with who you have become. 4/x
what accountability do we owe the subject of the voices and stories we expose that might exceed that of the audience? with so much of our convos around ethics, it is striking how little we invest in this great What that should lead into an even greater Why. 5/x
real solidarity then is less an exercise in empathy (self centered) and possibly moreso an exercise that focuses on agency and self determination of a subject in shaping their own position, description, and the rationale for how they are being described. 6/x
Chee touched on this (albeit in different terms) by noting writers who have provided avenues for collaboration and deeper, more nuanced consent by allowing subjects to touch and comment on their texts. 7/x
I know, I know. agile and business, blah blah. but how often does our work not recognize our power within larger embedded systems of power? this feels like a bigger step to arriving at what is an "ethical framework" for examining, mapping, and positioning the stories we tell. 8/x
another thing mentioned this afternoon was acknowledging how narrative maps a consciousness onto place, events, and subjects, individually as well as how they relate to one another. "we condense into shapes..." 9/x
an exercise that I'm sure even the most novice of UXers can relate to is the journey map. Chee related the complexities of a similar exercise of story mapping and character cards in as much as it implies an "archive" from which we draw and which has its own gaps. 10/x
the "archive" defines our access to the subject as well as implicit and explicit "agreements" in not only how we understand the understanding, but the gaps in our identities that collide with our intimacy to the story. 11/x
"what do I not know to expand the story on the page?" what happens if I fail to think about those gaps is something I wrestle with outside of the "fiction" that this class intended to address. it stumbles starkly and unforgivingly into UX narratives. 12/x
the other day, someone noted that what they were writing were not fictions, but I would contend that if you have compiled many a story and condense into a single shape, that you have designed a fiction. it doesn't matter whether it is from aggregated data pools or interviews.13/x
the last thing I want to touch on that feels relevant is this idea of memory being geographic. it's interesting to consider how our digital spaces are transforming our engagements with memory particularly as so much of work in tech is no longer tethered to physical space. 14/x
how is memory unlocked in the space between spaces? what does it mean to start and move between the channels of digital and physical space as it relates to an experience? what does that mean for how we juxtapose meaning when the space remains exclusively digital? 15/x
while this workshop has absolutely nothing to do with UX or UX research explicitly, so much about it gave me a way to make sense of methods or practices that I have been feeling odd about for a while now. there's a Crux of responsibility there. 16/16
for any of you who are interested, the workshop I'm taking is "Thief of Lives."
the readings for this class are gold, and the accompanying discussion by @alexanderchee is everywhere my mind has wanted to go, but with exquisite direction and compassion. https://www.theshipmanagency.com/classes/craft-seminar-on-writing-autobiographical-fiction-now
the readings for this class are gold, and the accompanying discussion by @alexanderchee is everywhere my mind has wanted to go, but with exquisite direction and compassion. https://www.theshipmanagency.com/classes/craft-seminar-on-writing-autobiographical-fiction-now
