How I Became a Children’s Story Author, Sort of

Prologue

As a User Experience (UX) Designer, I have always found it challenging to explain my profession to others. More recently, I faced an even greater challenge of explaining what a UX designer is to a class of seven-year-olds. How could I capture the essence of UX design in an engaging and understandable way to young minds?

I explored ideas around play and PowerPoint slides but ultimately settled on a time-tested approach for all UX activities and stories. My son, and hopefully all his classmates, love a good story. While I often craft a story when selling a design approach to a client, I knew I needed a different approach for this situation. 

During this quest, I sought assistance from a new set of AI-generative tools like ChatGPT and Fotor.ai. With these tools, I embarked on an exciting journey to create a children’s story that would unveil the mysteries of UX design. Join me as I share my experience and the creative process behind this endeavour.

Chapter 1: The AI Generative Tools

Before diving into my story, let me introduce the AI generative tools that became my trusted companions throughout this creative journey. ChatGPT, an incredible language model developed by OpenAI, allowed me to have interactive conversations and generate imaginative text. With a few prompts, I was able to generate several different storylines that range from futuristic and fantastical settings to ones that are more grounded in reality. Meanwhile, Fotor.ai provided me with a range of visual editing capabilities to provide illustrations for my story, making it visually captivating for young readers.

Chapter 2: Ben’s Story

With the AI tools at my disposal, I began my quest to create a story that would introduce UX design to children. I decided that rather than creating a fantastical environment with animals as the characters, I wanted to set everything in the real world, with real users having real problems. 

In the story, Ben, a little boy, is having difficulty using an app on his tablet and is getting frustrated with the mistakes.  Hearing cries of frustration, Ben’s dad, a UX designer, stops by to see if he can help.  Ben’s dad explains how UX designers carefully consider user needs, conduct research, create wireframes, and conduct tests to ensure that digital experiences are intuitive and enjoyable. Together, they are able to come up with a solution to Ben’s problems with the app.

Chapter 3: Visualizing the Adventure

To bring the story to life, Fotor.ai became my artistic ally. With its powerful editing tools, I transformed my ideas into vibrant illustrations. Each character and scene received a whimsical touch, capturing the imagination of young readers. The visual representation helped bring the characters to life. Admittedly, this stage of the process was the most frustrating.  I repeatedly entered prompts describing the scene I wanted, but the images generated often included unwanted elements.  For example, I would describe a scene of a father and son and would get images that included 3 or 4 people. After generating hundreds of images in a matter of hours, I could piece together all the elements to complete the story.

Epilogue

Through the combination of AI generative tools like ChatGPT and Fotor.ai, I was able to create a children’s story that explained the world of UX design. By simplifying complex concepts and weaving them into a narrative, I introduced young readers to this exciting field. When harnessed creatively, AI’s power can truly transform how we communicate and educate. As AI continues to advance, I am excited to see how it will further revolutionize the creative process for storytellers, educators, and professionals across various domains.