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Use cases

See also: scenarios, task analysis

Discussion articles

• Accessibility in the analysis phase: scenarios
  Scenarios, which are built on the information gathered in user-centred design workflow analysis, vary widely. Some focus on the functional level, while others provide task-level detail. "Use case" is used to mean many different things, and some types of use cases are very similar to scenarios as described here. Scenarios that include accessibility provide details on how a "persona" in limiting conditions interacts with the product using adaptive strategies, often including assistive technology.

• Along the fault lines - designing for deception, dishonesty, and other happy facts of human nature (PDF)
  A basic problem with use cases, and the entire product development mindset in which they are embedded, is that they generally fail to anticipate the larger social context inside which all technology exists.

• Structure and style in use cases for user interface design
  Various styles for writing use cases are presented with examples and discussions of their relative advantages and disadvantages, particularly their consequences for user interface design and software usability. Essential use cases, a variant employed within usage-centered design, are contrasted with conventional use cases and scenarios. For the most efficient support of user interface design and particularly for large, complex projects, a highly-structured form of use case has evolved. New narrative elements and relationships among use cases are introduced. These include means for expressing partial or flexible ordering of interaction, relationships with business rules, as well as a clarification of the often misunderstood concept of extension that recognizes two distinct forms: synchronous and asynchronous extensions.

• Use cases and interaction design
  Use cases are widely used in large projects to capture the functional requirements of software systems. In the hands of interaction designers, use cases can serve as a powerful tool for brainstorming workflows and bridging the gaps between design and development.

• Use cases part II: taming scope
  "To manage scope effectively, we have to define what the site must contain, what optional features would be good to have, and what features are irrelevant--and then we have to deal with newly requested or discovered needs and enhancements. The use-case model can be a powerful tool for controlling scope throughout a project's lifecycle. Because a simplified use-case model can be understood by all project participants, it can also serve as a framework for ongoing collaboration as well as a visual map of all agreed-upon functionality. It can, therefore, be a precious reference during later negotiations that might affect the project's scope."
  (Norm Carr, Tim Meehan)

• Using contextual design to define use cases
  When you use the development of use cases to drive your discussion of what the system should do and how it should be structured to do it, you mix a conversation about design options, system structure, and UI design with your conversation about the detailed behavior of the system in response to user input. The result is that the use case conversation becomes difficult and contentious--everyone has a different idea about what the system should do, and the conversation about use cases doesn't provide process support for this design discussion.

• What's the problem?
  "One of the biggest problems in delivering a website, and yet probably the least talked and written about, is how to decide, specify, and communicate just what, exactly, is it that we’re going to build, and why. What problem are we solving? Who needs it? What’s this site for, anyway? Use cases provide a simple, fast means to decide and describe the purpose of a project. They’re successfully employed by many software engineers as a way to capture the high-level objectives of an application during the initial phase of development. There’s no reason that web site developers shouldn’t also benefit from a use-case driven approach."
  (Norm Carr, Tim Meehan)