Story writing is unique to each person and project, but there are things you can always account for having: navigation, headings, typography, links, buttons, widget headers and wrappers, forms, and more. Designers need different things than developers do, but writing stories for your designers doesn’t have to be difficult or mystifying.
This is a continuation from my previous article, so feel free to start from the beginning!
What to include in the acceptance criteria on each page
Landing Page
- Primary nav
- Secondary nav
- Hero (image, portal title, search/no search, is it a carousel?, etc.)
- Widgets (popular services, popular KBAs, FAQs, tasks/incidents, open cases, other info widgets, etc.
- Footer
Record Producer Page
- Breadcrumb Menu
- RP Header
- RP Subheader
- Lorem ipsum or example text for instruction text
- Basic input fields (including maximum number of fields on a given row; I would recommend no more than two due to OOB tab behavior)
- Speciality input fields like dropdowns, date pickers, checkmark boxes, radio buttons, etc. (any fields like this you anticipate as part of the engagement)
- Add attachments
- Submit button position—is it at the bottom of the form or on the right of the form OOB?
- Required Fields
Service Catalog Page
- Catalog Filter widget (including category states like hover, active, parent collapsed/expanded, child nested)
- Service Catalog category heading
- Service Catalog card view
- Service Catalog list view
- Show more items widget or pagination
KBA Page
- Article title
- Article subtitle
- Article info (author, views, date published, star rating)
- Article subheadings
- Article body copy
- Copy permalink
- Star and helpful article ratings
- Comment widget
- Related/recommended article widget
Other Custom Pages
There may be other custom pages, such as a contact or department page, you’ll be required to build. You’ll need to work with your client to understand what exactly needs to go on each page to build out the story. Some pages, like a contact page, follow a pretty established convention even outside of the ServiceNow ecosystem, so they should typically be given at least 8 story points.
If you’re building out custom functionality, or you’re having to lay out a complex user flow, then your point value is going to go up drastically. If it makes YOUR head hurt, and you’ve been to all the requirements gathering meetings…just go ahead and add lots more story points so your designer also has room to ask questions and “workshop” it out.
Final Thoughts
I know your design team may seem like mystical artistic unicorns who hate constraints, but I promise your designers also crave the clarity and consistency of well-written requirements. It removes ambiguity and allows us to do our jobs in a more efficient and higher quality manner.
For an even more in-depth look at writing stories for service portal from a Solution Analyst’s perspective, I highly recommend Sarah Toulson’s articles: Part 1 and Part 2.
Please let me know in the comments if you’re interested in hearing more about what to include in your branding guidelines or how to determine if a design is ready for development!