Usage Scenarios to focus the design phase on what really matters: use

Creation of Web and Usage Scenarios

Akendi follows an established process to identify and develop usage scenarios for web sites, products, services, organizations and brands. The creation of usage scenarios builds on persona research. Once it is identified who the users are, the next step is capture and research what these users do and where. The level of detail that is uncovered at this stage is critical to help guide the design and overall requirements for the web site, product or service. A usage scenario demonstrates the relationships between the individual tasks/activities that the user has to do and the impact of the environment to reach their intended goal (e.g. find out about types of services, fill in the right information in the form in order to get the right information).

Usage Scenarios and context of use

The environment or context of use is an important part of the usage scenario. There are several dimensions to a context of use: job characteristics, organizational structures and physical space attributes. Some example context of use aspects are:

• whether the user is under any time constraints while using the product

• is their boss requiring the result in an email

• is the team they work in spread across the continent

• would they work in a cubicle, outside

• would the lighting condition change at all, etc.

Different types of Usage Scenarios

Each usage scenario will be captured as a description following ‘a-day-in-the-life-of- user ABC’. It will outline the end-to-end experience of a user doing several tasks in a context of use. A usage scenario description can also include tangible elements like physical prototypes or parts of a web site, product designs, and printed materials. We will endeavor to create rich usage scenarios within the project constraints.

Usage Scenario research Approach

As with Personas, the usage scenario creation starts with using internal resources for the creation of scenarios. This is a best practice if the organization hasn’t done any primary user research yet or the project boundaries don’t allow for a greater effort. We do stress that conducting primary field research and ethnographic research with end users yields the most reliable information.

Usage scenario workshop

Relevant user research information can be anecdotal in nature, not really captured in a more formal way or quite dispersed among various people in the organization. To capture the available internal knowledge requires a number of interviews or workshop sessions with individuals that have (had) experience in user, customer or client facing roles.

Client facing includes both outside customers / users of the service or product, but inside to the organization as well. For example: front desk staff, support staff, managers, web managers, content matter experts, (internal) consultants, outreach, marketing and sales staff. In an interview or workshop session, we start with the question: ‘can you tell me how this user would use your product or service?’ and from there start to capture and build the overview of all usage scenarios that can or should be distinguished for the purposes of the design.

An initial inventory would result in 15-20 distinct usage scenarios or between 1-5 scenarios per user persona. The gathered information is communicated in a way that promotes integration of the results in the design. This can range from a large poster, pages on the intranet to presentations or other fitting means to make all stakeholders aware of the insights. An important part of this phase is to stimulate the ongoing communication among stakeholders regarding the end users.

usage scenario research outcomes

After the interviews and/or workshops, it can be determined if the validity of the information is high enough to go to the design phase or whether there is a need for additional ethnographic research and field research.

Usage scenarios form an excellent communication tool during design and development by creating a shared understanding of the user, tasks and their environment . This understanding will create a clear focus in the design phase on what is most important to the end users of the product or service.

It will change the conversation in the design phase:

Contact Us

 t: +1 416 855-3367 e: business@akendi.com m: 187 King Street East, 4th floor, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Usage scenario research and definition for companies globally: Canada, Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Ottawa, Calgary, Edmonton; San Francisco, San Jose, CA; Boston, MA; Chicago; London, UK; Amsterdam; New York, NY.