How i used Aristotle’s 7 Elements of Storytelling on my Fitness UX case study to Empathise.

The Power of Stories in Building Empathy

Shourav Chowdhury
3 min readMar 14, 2021
Photo by Suzy Hazelwood from Pexels
Photo by Suzy Hazelwood from Pexels

I’ve been in design industry for more than 3 years. Within these years i’ve worked on various projects for startups and businesses who have managed to raise millions of dollar for investment. But felt something missing in my design strategy and thinking, what it could be? Story-telling in design that easily wins the mind of a project/product. In recent days i’m writing case studies for my portfolio and thought i can share with lads what i’ve learned from it . Problem i’m trying to solve is “how to make users do more fitness work”. I’ve just used Aristotle’s 7 elements of good storytelling which helped me to get the insight conducting from my user research.

1.Plot

What are the people you’re designing for doing?
What are they trying to accomplish?

I’m designing for the people who works for a long-tiring period of time wants to work for fitness.

2.Character

Who are the people?
What are their traits, their personalities?
What are their backgrounds, needs, aspirations, and emotions?

They are basically freelancers, live in the suburb area. They are young, age range from 27–29. They feel that they seiously need to do some serious workout.

3.Theme

Why are you, the design thinker, undertaking the project?

I firmly believe i’m fit for this, as i talk to them in-body and tried to figure out what’s that stopping them from doing the workout for fitness and how they can manage it.

4.Dialogue

What are the people saying?
Do they say different things when you observe them as compared to when you interview them?
How are they saying it — are they angry, disappointed, sad, or happy?

Users are unhappy because they don’t get enough time due to tight-schedule and various activities throughout the day. Really upsetting for them that they barely get time to do workout for fitness. Besides they don’t know from where to start and what to end.

5.Melody/Chorus

To be effective, your stories should have a pleasant “melody”, a chorus that resonates with your emotions and convictions.

Mobile app will be easier to use, intuitive, clean and optimised So that they can easily find out what kind of workout they need to do/ will be useful for them. Moreover find fitness trainer which will be beneficial for them to be guided in a right way which will encourage them to find time for workout and fitness. Along with these, there will be a community to get connected with each other for group workout at outdoor.

6.Décor

What’s the décor, setting and physical environment in which your users perform their acts like?

They can use the app both at indoor or outdoor. whenever they get time they can start immediately by opening app and performing tasks.

7.Spectacle

Are there any plot twists in your stories? Any unexpected insights about your users?

Users will be more active by using the app because of providing fitness mentor, workout tasks and community activity.

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