A Gamified Approach Highlights Crucial Points of the Digital Tool to Be Developed 

Creating fictional users and having them tell small stories of how they use an application is an approach that can be used when planning digital applications. Developing these so-called user stories has also been applied in the Sustainable Flow project. The method boosted the procurement phase and will help the development as well as the idea with user stories is to explain “what is the point” from various perspectives.

To support the procurement process, Sustainable Flow project partners got together in May to brainstorm on the user stories with the lead of Björn-Erik Zetterman and Mattias Eriksson from Åland University of Applied Sciences. Prior to the meeting the working group consisting of Zetterman, Tommy Skarpling from Swedish Maritime Administration, Minna Rahko from the Swedish Confederation of Transport Enterprises and Maiju Kaski from Fintraffic had had their hands full with the creation of user stories. 

 Their presentation in May on the topic opened the justification behind the storytelling and gamified approach and how it helps the planning of the digital tool. 

– The idea with user stories is not only to explain someone what the point is but also to motivate why certain things are the way they are. Using stories with context adds communication support to get a faster and deeper understanding of the idea behind the demands in the formal lists of demands. At the same time, we foster good co-operation between the port, partners, tender, and other parties, Zetterman explains.

At the end of the day, well-planned is half-done: user stories can significantly help the procurement and eventually the software development as they elaborate in an easily digestible way what users expect from the application.  

– We can talk the same story with end users as well as with programmers, Zetterman continues. 

Creating good stories

In the case of Sustainable Flow’s digital tool development, four different fictional users were identified: Lisa the system manager, David the operational worker, Paul the environmental and business manager and the system user. They all have different interests, needs and expectations on the system functionalities. Furthermore, both so called happy and unhappy paths are valuable for the planning process. 

So, what makes a good story? According to Zetterman, Skarpling and Rahko, good stories have such values as being independent, valuable, estimable, small, and testable. For example, the system manager could say, “As a system manager, I should be able to do everything that the other roles can do to manage the system”, whereas the environmental manager could say that “As an EM, I should be able to get the data in a list for each source of CO₂ emissions to get an overview of those”.  

As the stories go on and on, don’t hesitate to stay tuned for more updates on the progress of the Sustainable Flow project! 

Writers and editors: Krista Valkonen, Hanna Kajander and Meri-Maaria Salo