The Storyteller's Journey

Helping Aatlas Show Users That Ordinary Stories Hold Extraordinary Meaning

I led an exploratory mixed-methods study to uncover adoption barriers and better align product and marketing strategy with users’ needs.

Role

Lead Researcher

Timeline

4 months

Team

Solo project for masters thesis in close collaboration with Aatlas founder

Method

Survey, Interviews, Thematic Analysis, Descriptive Statistics, Cluster Analysis, Content Analysis, Grounded Theory, Framework Analysis, Journey Map & Personas

Tools

Zoom, Qualtrics, MaxQDA, Figma, Canva

Objectives

Uncover cultural barriers that prevent users from recording and sharing their life stories
Identify key motivations and values that shape storytelling behaviors across different user types
Develop recommendations for product, onboarding, and marketing strategy to increase engagement

Outcomes

The research revealed that the primary barrier to engagement was that users did not feel that their story was important enough to record and share.

I created a mental model that maps how users evolve through storytelling confidence over time. This framework became a foundational tool for creating recommendation that will align Aatlas's UX and messaging with user values, guiding feature development, onboarding strategy, and brand communication.

**This page highlights only a selection of insights from a deeply layered research project.

If you're interested in exploring the full findings or discussing them further, feel free to reach out.

01 | CONTEXT

The founder of Aatlas believed the platform’s primary users would be older adults or people looking to preserve their relatives' memories. Yet, early marketing efforts failed to spark sustained engagement.

I proposed that the project could benefit from the use of the anthropological lens to test the business hypothesis and develop cultural insight to generate ideas on how to move Aatlas forward in the market.

The research question is then this: What are the values and beliefs surrounding the practice of recording life stories?

to answer this question, I broke it down into the WHO, WHAT, WHY, and HOW

WHO

Who is recording?
Who is consuming?

WHAT

What stories are recorded?
What stories are being consumed?

WHY

Why record? Why Not?Why that story?
Why consume? Why that story?

HOW

How do they record?
How do they consume?

02 | METHODS

I led a mixed-methods study grounded in anthropological theory.

Survey (n=50) to surface broad patterns in behavior and preferences

Semi-Structured Interviews (n=10) to explore emotional, cultural, and practical layers of behavior

Descriptive statistics, Cluster analysis and Content Analysis using Qualtrics
Grounded Theory, Thematic analysis, Framework analysis using MaxQDA
Collaborative synthesis and ideation sessions with the Aatlas founder

03 | POTENTIAL ADOPTERS

To evaluate potential engagement and narrow down market segments for initial outreach, in the survey I asked about the level of interest in using a digital product for recording stories, and what the projected frequency of recording was.

Here is a look at potential engagement with the Aatlas platform according to survey results comparing these data sets to age.

Here I compared reported frequency preference and how likely they would be to adopt a digital product.

Aatlas should initially design for users who are both highly likely to adopt a digital product and interested in frequent engagement, particularly those aged 26–35 and 18–25.

However, the strong interest among 56–65-year-olds suggests that flexible design accommodating both regular and occasional contributors will be key to broad adoption.

04 | KEY PAIN POINT

100% of interviewees acknowledged a deeper belief that their stories weren’t valuable enough to share.

The research revealed that the primary barrier to engagement wasn't time, tech complexity, or effort—it was self-worth.

This emotional insight reframed the core challenge—users must first be convinced their stories are worth telling before they will engage with the platform. Those who believed their story mattered were far more resilient to friction in the recording process.

05 | FRAMEWORK ANALYSIS

Storytelling is more than just an act of documentation; it is a natural process of identity formation, meaning-making, and cultural transmission.

Through this research, it became evident that storytelling follows a natural progression, one that evolves as individuals move from passively consuming or producing stories to actively shaping their own narratives.

Here I introduce the Storyteller’s Journey, a mental model constructed based on the findings from the research that captures this evolution through three key stages: Beginner, Intermediate, and Pro Storyteller.

Beginner

The Beginning Storyteller represents the initial stage of personal storytelling. This early storytelling is often self-focused, serving as a way to record personal milestones or significant events.

Their storytelling behavior is driven by the immediate need to capture and share highlights of their life or the lives of those closest to them. In today's digital landscape, this largely unfolds on social media.

CATALYST

As they record, they begin to consume others stores more and more, and the more stories they consume, as they consume more stories, they begin to want to record deeper narratives.

They begin to gravitate toward stories with greater substance, particularly those centered on transformation such as overcoming struggles, discovering who you are, and the difference between right and wrong.

Intermediate

Intermediate storyteller's focusing on stories that document overcoming, surviving change, struggles, and personal growth. They gravitate toward first consuming and eventually creating these stories of transformation of family members or pillars of the community.

Storytelling therefore becomes a tool for understanding identity, setting goals, fostering resilience, and strengthening community through captured knowledge.

CATALYST

They begin recognizing that the mundane moments in life also hold significance. And its actually those small moments that eventually make up the larger transformative narratives.

This process often begins with the recording and consuming the full life stories of others, which leads to a deeper understanding that their own story carries the same potential to inspire and teach because of the richness in the mundane.

Pro

The Pro Storyteller represents the final stage in the storyteller's journey where recording and reflecting become a continuous and integrated practice in one’s life, rooted in the understanding that others will care about your story, just as you cared about theirs.

Valuable stories don’t just come from people who have done extraordinary things. In fact, the best stories worth listening to come from the ordinary experiences of those who shape our everyday lives and communities.

Why is this important?

As we connect with others and find community in their experiences, we begin to recognize the importance of everyone's story—including our own.

This research revealed that the Storyteller’s Journey mirrors a growth in self-confidence that often we feel develops along with years lived. But this journey shows that wisdom and confidence grows each time someone finds value in our story.

This model provides a blueprint for understanding how individuals move from reluctance to confident storytelling, providing a framework for platforms like Aatlas to help start people recordign their stories and how to support them at every stage of their journey.

06 | RECOMMENDATIONS

Who is Aatlas For?

Aatlas is for everyone with a story to tell, even if they don't know it yet.

That means designing flexible storytelling models and targeted marketing campaigns that highlight how Aatlas accommodates for the places we are in our journey.

What do they need?

The design strategy for Aatlas centers on aligning the platform with the Storyteller’s Journey by creating a guided user experience that supports personal growth from hesitant to confident storytellers.

Key recommendations include creating an onboarding experience that sorts users into different journey funnels, building a structured journey that reflects users' preferences, offering tools to support creative storytelling, and integrating strong privacy controls with long-term access.

By creating features that are easy to use, motivating, and deeply personal, Aatlas can foster

long-term engagement by empowering storytellers to continue on their journey.

How do you reach them?

Aatlas’ marketing should focus on sparking the belief that every story is worth recording.

Key mesages include reinforcing story-worthiness, emphasizing control and security, and showcasing Aatlas’ unique approach to creating memory lanes instead of timelines.

By aligning messaging with users’ cultural narrative, Aatlas can position itself as a platform for meaningful storytelling rooted in identity, legacy, and connection.

07| IMPACT ON PARTICIPANTS

Impact of the interview process on participants
is evidence of the Storytellers Journey

During interviews, I witnessed the Storyteller’s Journey unfold in real time. As participants reflected on why others did or didn't recorded their stories, they began to reconsider the value of their own stories.

Every person I spoke to expressed new interest in recording their stories by the end of the interview.

Simply being asked about their lives, and feeling heard, helped spark the belief that their story was worth telling.

“I don't know why people record their own stories. That, there's like a weird element of confidence...they must have [something] that I don't know that I have”

“Honestly, I can't think of anyone whose story isn't worth sharing. Which I know is a direct contradiction to what I said at first about myself *laughs*. But like, all of it is useful. Whether it's funny, enlightening, sad - all of it's important.”

08| MARKET OPPORTUNITY

Aatlas meets Gen Z's desire for authentic human experiences and need for meaningful connection.

Gen Z is growing up in a landscape marked by identity anxiety, decision fatigue, and a loss of stable cultural guidance. With social media shaping much of our enculturation, we crave narratives that offer authenticity and create meaningful connections within communities.

Aatlas is uniquely positioned to meet this need—by supporting identity formation through reflection and meaningful connection through storytelling. Aatlas offers a digital space that aligns with Gen Z’s deeper search for purpose.

Aligning cultural narratives and strategic design reinforces Aatla's role as a transformative platform for storytelling in the digital age.

How I Grew as a Researcher...

Skills

I explored for the first time translating cultural insights into concrete UX, brand, and marketing strategies. Bridging abstract themes with actionable recommendations felt like finding my researcher–strategist sweet spot.

Methods

I leveled up in planning and managing a full research arc—from designing mixed-methods studies to organizing deliverables and communicating insights clearly with stakeholders. This project also helped me practice collaborative decision-making across roles and expertise areas.

Design Principles

Designing for motivation is just as important as usability—especially for emotionally vulnerable experiences. A product must not only be easy to use, but also inspire users to believe they belong there.

Personal Discovery

This project deepened my belief in anthropology’s power to shift narratives. Helping users see value in their own stories reminded me why I do this work—it’s about designing for meaning, not just metrics.

Chelsea King