Author User Stories to Guide BERT’s UI/UX Development

[rsthornton]

Background

We want a curated set of high‑quality user stories based on professional UX evaluation to guide implementation work.

Goal

Produce a clear, prioritized set of user stories across personas that engineers can implement. Each story should be self‑contained with measurable success criteria.

Deliverables

• 6–10 well‑formed user stories across at least two personas
• One markdown file per story in bert/bert/docs/ux/user-stories/ (e.g., scientist-zoom-controls.md)
• An index in bert/bert/docs/ux/README.md listing stories, brief descriptions, and links

Story Template (copy for each story)

# <Persona> — <Concise Story Title>

## Tags
- persona:<primary|secondary|tertiary|communication>
- theme:<zoom|terminology|templates|export|presentation|onboarding|…>

## User Story
As a <Persona>, I want <capability> so that <outcome>.

## Background / Problem
- What pain or confusion exists today?
- Why does it matter for this persona?

## Success Criteria
- Specific, measurable outcomes appropriate for UX stories, for example:
  - Time-to-first-model under X minutes for a novice (Secondary)
  - Task success rate ≥ Y% in a 5‑user hallway test (Primary/Secondary)
  - Tooltip comprehension: users can correctly define a term after reading (Z/5 correct)
  - Presentation readability: 8/10 or higher rating from 3 non‑technical reviewers (Communication‑focused)
  - Export legibility: all flow types distinguishable when printed in grayscale
- Include a brief manual test checklist (what a reviewer should do to validate the story)

## Constraints / Non-Goals
- Platform scope (web/desktop)
- Performance or accessibility constraints (optional)

## Notes / References
- Screenshots, quick sketches, or references (optional)

Personas (four‑tier breakdown)

• Primary: System scientists conducting deep systems analysis
  • Examples: George Mobis framework for empirical consciousness research
  • Formal methodology: sources, sinks, interfaces, subsystems
• Secondary: Regular scientists doing transdisciplinary work
• Tertiary: Crypto‑economic researchers
• Communication‑focused stakeholders: Entrepreneurs, CEOs, policy workers (presentation/communication oriented)

Note: If Secondary and Tertiary needs significantly overlap for a given story, combine under the most representative persona and clarify in the background.

Per‑persona success metrics (examples)

• Primary
  • Dense diagram usability (no occlusion at key zooms)
  • Precision and speed (reduced click count, accurate keyboard/mouse controls)
• Secondary
  • Onboarding clarity (time‑to‑first‑model), reduced rework
  • Sensible defaults/templates used without edits
• Tertiary
  • Value vs information flow legibility at a glance
  • Export presets (with legend) suitable for research reports
• Communication‑focused
  • Readability in presentations, clear hierarchy and labels
  • Stakeholder comprehension in usability checks

Suggested Initial Stories (tailored per persona)

• Primary (System scientists)
  • Precise zoom and pan controls for dense diagrams (keyboard + mouse parity)
  • Terminology clarity for sources/sinks/interfaces (domain‑accurate labels and tooltips)
  • Faster creation of nested subsystems with minimal clicks (advanced creation UX)
• Secondary (Transdisciplinary scientists)
  • Progressive onboarding that explains SL concepts as you build
  • Smart defaults for common modeling patterns (starter templates)
• Tertiary (Crypto‑economic researchers)
  • Clear representation of value flows vs information flows (visual coding improvements)
  • Export settings tuned for reports (vector export with legend)
• Communication‑focused (CEOs/Policy)
  • Presentation mode with simplified visuals and hiding of advanced controls
  • Shareable exports (HTML/PNG) with clear visual hierarchy and labels

Tagging Scheme

• Add persona:<primary|secondary|tertiary|communication> and one or more theme:<...> tags at the top of each story
• Use these tags in the index to filter and in engineering issues to track implementation focus

Prioritization Guidance

• Near‑term implementation mix (suggested): Primary 60%, Secondary 25%, Tertiary 10%, Communication‑focused 5%
• Rebalance as research indicates different needs

Submission Instructions

• Fork the repo, add new files under docs/ux/user-stories/
• Tag each story (persona/theme) and follow the template
• Update docs/ux/README.md with a short table of contents (include tags)
• Once a story is accepted, open a linked engineering issue with file pointers and a manual test checklist
• Open a PR with the label: design, ui/ux, documentation, good first issue

Acceptance Criteria

• Index file updated with at least 6 stories across ≥2 personas
• Each story follows the template, includes tags and measurable success criteria
• Stories are clear enough for engineers to create implementation issues without additional calls