About article 2 of The Pendulum series
The article series “The Pendulum – UX with a Shifting Perspective” (in short, The Pendulum) builds on principles demonstrated in the Hebrew-language podcast “המטוטלת – חוויית משתמש בגישה מטלטלת”, referred to simply as “המטוטלת”, and presents a unique approach to designing user experience for complex products and systems.
At 5IVE UX, where we work daily with enterprise-grade, AI-enabled and data-intensive products, the question of what actually triggers a user to act comes up again and again. In this article, we focus on one concrete answer to that question: distress as the real starting point of a user story.
This is the second article in the series, continuing directly from Article 1.
Distress: the surprising key
In the previous article, we explored why knowing you should focus on the user isn’t enough, and why even sincerely trying to represent their point of view still doesn’t get you there. To write a user story that is real, grounded, and precise, you must temporarily become the user. Not “he wants,” not “she would,” but “I want,” “I do.”
But how can you become someone entirely different? The woman booking a flight. The courier receiving an order. The analyst verifying an anomaly. The technician navigating a complex flow.
There is a way. And yes, it sounds strange. The key word is: distress.
Stay with me. It’s simpler and far more universal than it seems.
Distress is an emotion we all know
Distress is, first and foremost, an emotion. And emotions are universal.
You might never have been an astronaut, a Chinese retailer, or an Iowa farmer, but you have definitely experienced distress. We all have. That shared emotional vocabulary creates a bridge. It allows us to empathize with someone else’s situation, even if their domain, tools, or environment are completely foreign to us.
Distress brings us closer. It connects product managers to technicians, executives to operators, designers to analysts, and users to each other. It’s part of our shared human wiring.
If we can tap into the user’s distress, we can connect to their experience. And if we can connect to their experience, we can momentarily become them.
But this is only half of the story.
Distress is also unavoidable
Here’s the second part, and it’s more surprising: Distress isn’t only emotional. Distress is unavoidable.
Every user story begins with distress. Because without distress to resolve, there is no activity. And without activity, there is no story.
As humans, we are designed to conserve energy. Evolution wired us to do nothing unless we need to. If our ancient ancestors ran around the savanna all day for no reason, they’d burn too many calories, starve, and vanish from the gene pool. Laziness, in this context, is an excellent survival strategy.
Interestingly, this mechanism shows up across classic psychology as well. Classic motivation theories like Hull’s drive reduction theory describe behavior as a response to an internal tension state that seeks relief: when equilibrium is disrupted, we act to restore it. Source: https://www.simplypsychology.org/drive-reduction-theory.html
So when do humans choose to act? Only when there is some distress to resolve.
Distress can be big or small. Survival-level or mildly annoying.
- Hunger: distress. Go hunt or gather.
- A storm coming: distress. Build shelter.
- Pebbles on the ground before going to sleep: distress. Clear them.
No distress, no action. No action, no story. No story, no user story.
Modern users are no different
Look around. We haven’t changed.
- The driver honking behind you at a red light? Distress.
- Your partner searching desperately for keys? Distress.
- And yes, the user of your product? Distress.
The woman booking a flight in your app is not in a life-threatening situation. But she has a distress: she wants flight tickets, and she does not have them. That gap between “what is” and “what I want” is distress.
A Moovit user who needs to get from point A to point B is experiencing a distress: I am here, but I must be there. No distress, no need for Moovit. She would simply stay put.
In enterprise-grade environments and mission-critical workflows, even small forms of distress can escalate into cognitive overload or decision bottlenecks. Recognizing that trigger is essential for simplifying complex products.
Why the word matters
You might say: “Distress? Isn’t that too strong a word?” Maybe. But that sharpness is intentional.
Using a strong word forces us to dig deeper, to uncover the real need under the surface. It prevents us from glossing over the story with fluffy generalities like “the user wants to manage data more easily” or “the user wants to complete a workflow efficiently”.
Those aren’t stories. Those are slogans.
Distress helps us ask the real question: What is the user trying to resolve? What is the initial state that drives them to act?
That question is the foundation of every true user story.
Where we are now
Let’s recap.
To write a believable, effective user story, you must momentarily become the user. To become the user, you need a bridge. That bridge is distress.
Distress is emotional, which allows us to empathize. Distress is unavoidable, which gives the story its reason to exist. Without distress, no user would do anything at all.
This is the theory.
In the next article, we’ll move from theory to practice: How do we use distress? How do we identify it, articulate it, and turn it into a real, clear, precise, no-bullshit user story that guides design for complex systems?
Explore and discuss
Listen to Episode 1 of the Hebrew-language podcast “המטוטלת – חוויית משתמש בגישה מטלטלת”, which spans the material covered across the first two articles. The article series distills selected themes into focused, written insights. Episode 1 on Spotify | The podcast on all platforms
Discuss and comment on this article on LinkedIn.