This presentation supported a 4-hour workshop taught by Liz Bacon at the Interaction10 conference in Savannah, Georgia on February 4, 2010. It describes the nuts-and-bolts of applying a scenario-based approach to design. It also covers some of the theoretical underpinnings of this method as well as how it supports effective team communication and collaboration. Liz will be writing a book on this subject, and welcomes your comments here or directly via http://www.devise.com/contact.
2. Introductions
Problem identification
Context scenarios
Key path scenarios
Validation scenarios
Other uses
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Elizabeth Bacon Scenarios for Design
3. Background
Liz Bacon
1998-1999 MuseAll
1999-2002 Cooper
2002-2007 St. Jude Medical
2007-now Devise
IxDA Director/Vice-President, 2007-2010
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4. And you?
?
What would you like to take
away from this workshop?
Role call:
• Designer
• Manager
• Developer
• Other...
Do you care about Agile?
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5. Goal-Directed Design methodology
Invented at Cooper: a solid, repeatable
methodology & process for creating interactive
products
• Ethnographic research
• Personas as the central actor in scenarios
• Conceptual interaction design
• Communication of interaction design solutions
• Principles, patterns & other practices
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6. Why scenarios are important to
interaction design
Interactive systems involve design &
communication of forms and behaviors over time.
Scenarios help us create an end-to-end
experience, so that we designing features in
consideration of one another.
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7. Scenarios give us context for whom
we are designing
Persona descriptions and goals give us criteria by
which to design and evaluate solutions.
Scenarios give us real-world situations to solve
for, and a context in which the personas act.
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8. Scenarios connect research to
appropriate design solutions
Context Scenarios Key Path Scenarios Validation Scenarios Communication Scenarios
• High level • Detailed • Detailed • High-level or detailed,
• Comprehensive • Core & comprehensive • Edge cases depending on audience
• Drive requirements • Drive interaction design • Test design solution • Drive agreement on design
definition solutions candidates rightness
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9. Process should move between
perspectives
Any design process worth its salt moves back and
forth between steps that focus on:
sequence objects
flow separations
connections functions
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10. Introductions
Problem identification
Context scenarios
Key path scenarios
Validation scenarios
Other uses
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11. Craft begins with problem
identification
Interaction Design is not art: embrace constraints!
And embrace the process!
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12. What are Personas?
Personas are archetypal user profiles,
representing what we know about users and
potential users.
• Articulate current patterns of behavior
• Describe the environment in which users will
use your product or service
• Help team focus on representative needs of a
few target users
plus they help us avoid:
• Self-referential design
Power of specificity
• Elastic users
• Focus on edge cases
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13. First-hand interviews and observation
Personas and scenarios are most effective when
based on first-hand research.
Ethnographic research is fast & powerful.
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14. Stakeholder interviews and
collaborative approaches
Sometimes we can’t make it out to the field but
we still want human specificity.
Provisional personas are based on:
• Stakeholder interviews
• Subject matter experts
• Collaboration with people close to users
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15. A good persona description captures
• Goals (motivations...)
• Attitudes (mental models...)
• Work or activity flows
• Environment (context...)
• Skill level, anthropometrics
• Frustrations (obstacles...)
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16. Goals rise above “tasks”
Goals are motivations, those underlying human
needs and qualities that won’t shift (much) even
as technology does
Real people are consistent.
Technology solutions match or
don’t match their world.
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17. Characterizing goals
Each persona description includes 3-4 key goals
related to the product. Goals are of 3 types:
Experience goals End goals Life goals
Describe how someone Describe what a persona Seldom appropriate, unless
wants to feel while using a wants to accomplish. The achieving the life goal is a
product. product can help accomplish key motivation for using the
these things directly or product.
indirectly.
Let’s walk through an example persona
description (Lynn Castillo, for ChoreTracker)
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18. Persona sets and orgsonas
Multiple personas in a set illustrate the range of
behaviors we must consider. Orgsonas place
them in an archetypal context.
Capture domain variations important to your
product definition, such as:
• Senior vs junior roles
• Large organization vs small organization
• Buyers vs users
• Target users vs non-target users
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19. Work with stakeholders to classify
personas in a set
Once a Persona set is defined, they are classified
collaboratively to create team alignment
Focusing on Primary
personas reigns in
scope and keeps
designers sane
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20. Compared with target markets
Sets of personas represent significant, distinct
behavior patterns and goals within a target
market.
By itself, a target market identifies only the
buying population.
User profiles from marketing illustrate how to
sell & pitch products. We need more insights
about USAGE.
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21. More on persona misconceptions
Check out presentation available at
www.devise.com/further_reading
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22. Other research models
We also create and consider other research
models to clarify the problem space and start
to characterize the solution:
• Mental models
• Workflows diagrams
• Affinity diagrams
• Human factors & anthropometrics
• Usability testing
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23. Personas only give us part of the
story
Personas tell us about how users behave now.
Scenarios tell us about how users will behave—
in the future—with our new product or service.
Scenarios are what really drive
requirements and design.
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24. Scenario-based approach to design
Two main phases of
IxD with scenarios at
their core
Next, ensure ideas
are valid, then
communicate in a
user-centered way
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25. Introduction
Problem identification
Context scenarios
Key path scenarios
Validation scenarios
Other uses
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26. Key deliverable/outcome:
UX requirements
This phase is devoted to
product definition and
establishing scope.
Research insights are
synthesized into novel,
pleasing solutions.
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27. Visionary
Envision the new, delightful experience of
primary persona(s), at a high level.
• Innovative
• Begin with brainstorming
• Apply magic thinking
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28. Consider lifecycle, stay real
Represent the end-to-end experience in the real
world.
• Don’t forget people’s disabilities and
environmental constraints
Use personas to drive user-centered decisions on
business side.
Determine WHAT and don’t focus on HOW!
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29. POWER of WORDS
Fluidity of language makes for infinite
possibilities
• Approachability for stakeholders
• Ultimate lightweight documentation
Sketching with words
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30. Let it all out
Activity: Brainstorm
Brainstorm before committing
“pen” to “paper”.
• Go crazy however you see fit
• Don’t be critical
• Don’t get attached
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31. Concepts and ideas
Activity: Write context scenarios
Use personas and research
models to describe how the
persona(s) might use the
product.
Context scenarios are high-level
but lifecycle-comprehensive.
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32. Target primary personas
Write context scenarios for primary personas and
secondary personas if time permits
There are usually 2-6 context scenarios.
They cover data & actions, in sequence, that
meet user goals.
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33. A context scenario considers...
• Setting in which the product will be used
• Frequency of use; duration of use
• Possibility of creating “flow”, dealing with
interruptions
• Number of users on a single system
• Ecosystem of related products
• Tolerable level of complexity
• Experience goals
• End goals
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34. EXAMPLE: ChoreTracker
Lynn’s context scenarios
•Setting up her family and chore
chart
•Monitoring chore progress
Let’s walk through one
(handouts).
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35. Teamwork
We’ll be working in teams today:
form up in teams of two.
“Ideas get developed by explaining
them to the right kind of person. You
need that resistance, just as a carver
needs the resistance of the wood.”
- Paul Graham,
essayist, programmer, language designer
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36. Background for exercises LubeSoft
Actual
Devise
LubeSoft client
Quick lube shop operating software
ISI wants to take advantage of internet
capabilities and chain-wide data reporting
Conceived the LubeSoft Dashboard, a
graphical, web-based interface to system
Tom is our primary persona for the
LubeSoft Dashboard (see handouts)
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37. Field research LubeSoft
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38. Key Measures
Measures needed to run shop effectively on a daily basis
Ticket average (today)
Labor % of Sales (today) (hour by hour)
Cost of Goods Sold
Car count (today) (monthly, hourly) (Hourly car count is “traffic”)
Sales figures per employee
Net sales
Bay times
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39. TEAM EXERCISE: Context scenarios LubeSoft
for Tom
Activity: Brainstorm & Write
Brainstorm concepts. Then
consider how many context
scenarios you need.
With your teammate, write out
one (or more) context scenarios.
Stay away from “how” and focus
on “what”
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40. Debrief
?
Were you able to think of realistic
stories about Tom and how he
could use the product?
Was it hard to stay at a high level
of detail?
Did you discuss edge cases?
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41. Scenarios drive customer requirements
Context scenario becomes a powerful
collaboration tool with stakeholders
• Bridging the gap between customer research
and what development needs to know to scope
work
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42. Getting to requirements
Activity:
Identify all necessary product
functionality & capabilities that
contribute to a positive user
experience.
• Data needs
• Functional needs
• General needs
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43. Data needs
Data needs address information and other data that
each persona needs to see
For example, a Zappo’s user needs to see:
• Product image
• Description
• Cost
• Availability
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44. EXAMPLE: ChoreTracker
Lynn’s data needs
She needs to see:
• Individual kid’s chores
• Chore completion status
• Individual kid allowance
• Reward goals
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45. Functional needs
Functional needs address actions the persona needs
to take upon or in response to the data
For example, a Zappo’s user needs to be able to:
• View their specific size
• Read customer reviews
• Add product to cart, or favorites
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46. EXAMPLE: ChoreTracker
Lynn’s functional needs
She needs the ability to:
• Read about company philosophy
• Create accounts for each child
• Create new chores, including
scheduling them
• Create new reward goals
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47. General considerations
Consider factors that may not have surfaced yet:
• Personas’ technical skills
• Anthropometrics
• Competitive pressures
• Stakeholder & business goals
• Industry regulations
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48. EXAMPLE: ChoreTracker
General considerations for Lynn:
• Lynn could get interrupted at any
time, so the site should never lose
track of what she’s started but not
finished.
• Lynn is fairly tech savvy
• Lynn wants to live sustainably so we
can help her try to avoid printing
paper
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49. CLASS EXERCISE: LubeSoft
Data & functional needs
Activity: Consider data and
functional needs
Let’s discuss LubeSoft
operations.
What information and activities
would be helpful for Tom?
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50. LubeSoft data elements
LubeSoft Dashboard - interim Form & Behavior Specification, Data Elements section - dated April 23, 2008
LubeSoft
“DASH”, “SHOP”, “SALES”, “TEAM” and “CHAIN” indicate where this measure is displayed for the specific timeframe; “-” means the
measure is not needed for that timeframe.
SHOP MEASURES:
Measure Unit Today Week- Month- Month +|- +|- Target Level at Historical: Historical: Historical:
to- to-date Trend Target applicable which This month Last month Last week
for time target is last year + same + same
date projection (%)
period of: configured month last week last
year year
Definitions DISPLAYED TIMEFRAMES Definitions DISPLAYED TIMEFRAMES
Ticket $ DASH CHAIN DASH SHOP DASH Today, Shop SHOP CHAIN CHAIN
Average CHAIN CHAIN CHAIN SHOP Month
CHAIN Trend
Car Count # DASH CHAIN DASH SHOP DASH Month Shop SHOP CHAIN CHAIN
CHAIN CHAIN CHAIN SHOP trend
CHAIN
Net Sales $ DASH CHAIN DASH SHOP DASH Month Shop SHOP CHAIN CHAIN
CHAIN CHAIN CHAIN SHOP trend
CHAIN
Labor % of Net DASH CHAIN DASH SHOP DASH Today, Shop SHOP CHAIN CHAIN
Sales, CHAIN CHAIN CHAIN SHOP Month
$, or CHAIN Trend
Man
Hours
Cost of % of Net DASH CHAIN DASH SHOP DASH Today, Shop SHOP CHAIN CHAIN
Goods Sold Sales, CHAIN CHAIN CHAIN SHOP Month
or $ CHAIN Trend
Category % of Net SALES CHAIN SALES SALES SALES Month Chain SALES CHAIN CHAIN
Sales Sales CHAIN CHAIN CHAIN CHAIN Trend
Bay Times Minutes DASH - - - - Today Chain - - -
Average Bay Minutes DASH CHAIN CHAIN CHAIN CHAIN Month Chain - - -
Time CHAIN CON- Trend
FIGURE
Repeat % of DASH - - - - n/a n/a - - -
Customers Total
Invoices
Discounts % of Net DASH - - - - n/a n/a - - -
Sales
(?)
Notes:
• “+|- Target” is defined as the % difference (either positive or negative) between the measure!s Month Trend projection value and
the Target value for that measure as configured by the Owner.
• For example, if the Car Count Target for a given shop is configured at 500 cars and the Month Trend projection shows 400
cars, the +|- Target value is -20% and is displayed to the user as “-20”. For this measure, a negative value is bad. Interaction10
• For example, if the Labor Warning Threshold for a given shop is configured at 25% and the Month Trend projection shows
Elizabeth Bacon 32%, the +|- Target value is +25% and is displayed to the user as “+25”. For this measure, a positive value is bad. Scenarios for Design
51. Defining requirements
Activity:
Define a coherent user
experience, where user and
business needs converge as
innovative solutions are defined.
Feasibility
Viability Desirability
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52. Note: This is different from other
requirements lists
These requirements are not yet comprehensive for
development. Main audience is project
stakeholders, not detailed planning.
Allow team to discuss major functionality and
make informed trade-off decisions.
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53. Associate them with user needs
Context scenarios can be used to integrate all
design inputs
• Personas & goals
• Mental models
• Human factors
• Data needs
• Functional needs
• General considerations
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55. TEAM EXERCISE: LubeSoft
UX requirements
Activity: Define requirements
With your partner, write out one
(or more) sets of product
requirements for your context
scenario
Consider all sources of user-
centered insight and business goals
If you maintain a separate list of
general requirements, that’s A-OK!
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56. Debrief
?
Were you staying at the right level
of detail?
Did you get excited about your
concepts and what they would do
for the personas?
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57. Collaboration:
Review requirements
Context scenarios help us drive the design and
determine the scope of the product or service.
• Meet with stakeholders around this important
material
• Each scenario may be prioritized based on
research and business goals (technical complexity
if Agile)
• Requirements within scenarios will start to be
deemed vital, in-scope, nice-to-have or
candidates for deferment
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58. Introduction
Problem identification
Context scenarios
Break!
Key path scenarios
Validation scenarios
Other uses
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59. Key deliverable/outcome:
interaction framework
This phase is focused on
devising solutions and
delivering high-level
specifications for product’s
fundamental forms and
behaviors.
Not every interaction is
solved, but the foundation is
true and purposes are clear.
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60. Heart of IxD
Key path scenarios are still a holistic view, but
more intensely focus on the beating heart
• Identify and refine geodes or nuggets of
coherence
• Balance importance of features against each
other to refine the most important elements
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61. Interaction framework is big picture
Interaction design framework doesn’t need to
include:
• Visual design
• Every widget
• Field names
• Real content
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62. Focus shifts between forms &
functions and interactive behaviors
Interaction design defines:
• the structure and behaviors of interactive
products and services
• user interactions with those products and
services
To define user interactions, we must analyze
structure and behavior at multiple levels:
• Component functions & forms
• Interactive, behavioral links between functions
& forms
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63. Foundational aspects
Activity: Determine posture
Posture refers to how a system
manifests itself within its
ecosystem.
For example:
• Extended use / intermittent use
• All-in-one or niche tool
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64. Foundational aspects
Activity: Consider inputs
There are increasingly many
platform possibilities:
• Keyboard, mouse
• Voice
• Touch
• Stylus
• Gestures
This decision guides subsequent
form and behavior choices.
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65. CLASS EXERCISE: LubeSoft
Posture & inputs
Activity: Consider application
posture and possible inputs
Few constraints have been
placed on you!
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66. Create key path scenarios
Activity: Write scenarios
Key path scenarios evolve from the
context scenarios, and focus on most
important & most common things
personas will do.
Make the “what” more concrete by
investigating the “how”.
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67. Key path scenarios are an
intersection and synthesis
Data
elements
Context
scenarios
Functional
elements
Key Path
scenarios
Business
value
Cost
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68. Data and functional elements
Evolve directly from data and functional needs
• Catalog:
• Objects and information user sees
• Tools that act upon those objects
• Containers in which objects are viewed
• Identify attributes, relationships and
hierarchies among data & functions
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69. EXAMPLE: ChoreTracker data elements
Data element: Chore
• Attributes
• Assignment to whom
• Chore name
• Text description
• Scheduled when
• Expiry
• Relationship to allowance
Data element: Kid
• Attributes
• Kid’s name
• Chores assigned each day
• Allowance tracking
• Notifications/alerts
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70. EXAMPLE: ChoreTracker functional
elements
Functional need: Create chore
• Include:
• Name chore
• Schedule chore
• Remove chore when expired
Functional element: Add button + calendar view
Functional need: Create kid
• Includes:
• Name kid
• Set age, gender
• Add profile picture
• Set allowance
Functional element: Pane with form controls & sliders
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71. Play with mapping GUI concepts
against elements & needs
Revisit the “inputs” and even “posture” and
consider alternative interaction paradigms
• Use a table to be extra-rigorous
• Explore metaphors
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73. TEAM EXERCISE: LubeSoft
Key Path Scenarios
Activity: Key Paths
In your teams, settle on posture &
inputs methods. Then, create a key
path scenario for one aspect of our
quick lube service.
• Start with a context scenario,
but make it more specific by
adding data and functional
elements to the story
• Define HOW!
The next step (not for this exercise!) is to draw the
interface to correspond with the key path scenario. If you
must picture something, picture the personas...
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74. Debrief
?
Share examples!
Who started sketching?
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75. Dynamic order of steps 2-3
Follow your gut:
• words grouped into scenarios
first, then sketch
or
• sketch first, then words written
and groups derived/verified
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76. Collaboration:
Feasibility
Key path scenarios help us focus our designs on the
most appropriate solutions for our situation
• Different interaction paradigms involve different
development costs
• Start to think about development reading your
scenario & requirements to write code
• Within each scenario, prioritize development
effort based on importance of persona goals
Caution: some audiences can handle “how” in words
while some need pictures
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77. Finally, start sketching!
Activity: Group and sketch
Group functionality
appropriately based on key path
sequence of use.
Sketch the interaction
framework by drawing a rough
wireframe of each view and its
component elements.
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78. Importance of views
Identify the major modes of the screen based on
different activities. Consider sets of activities,
and flows between activities.
Ensure you determine where beating heart
lives at core of system.
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79. EXAMPLE: ChoreTracker
Views for Lynn’s needs
Sections of screens, or separate pages:
• An area where she is introduced to the service
• An area where she gets access for free
• An area for scheduling chores
• An area for defining allowance
Our key path scenario and Lynn’s mental model tell us she will use the first two
and the latter two functional elements together in sequence:
• Get introduced to service
View #1 • Free services Other View • Paid service
• Add a chore for Justin
View #2 • Add a chore for Zach
• Set Justin & Zach’s allowance
Other View • Monitor chores
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80. EXAMPLE:
Early-phase sketching
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81. TEAM EXERCISE: Sketching LubeSoft
Activity: Group elements and
sketch views
In team pairs, sketch one or more
views of your LubeSoft web
experience.
• Reference key path scenario
• Keep drawings at the
wireframe level
• Give your sections names
• Discuss relationships among
parts, and whole
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82. Debrief
?
Did you keep your sketches at the
appropriate level of detail?
How much chance did you have to
iterate?
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83. The interaction framework
Activity: Define interaction
framework
Iterate, iterate, iterate! Finalize
posture & inputs; revise the key
path scenario; assess groupings
and continue sketching.
Work with your team, share
ideas, and refine until the
design framework is fully
formed.
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84. Collaboration:
Persuasion plus compromise
The Interaction Framework provides a clear vision of
the product design
• Scope
• System architecture
• Prioritization of functionality
• Compromise solutions won’t break the system, as
long as the beating heart is respected
Communicate appropriately for each audience
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85. EXAMPLE: ChoreTracker
Mid-phase interaction framework
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86. EXAMPLE: ChoreTracker
Late-phase interaction framework
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87. EXAMPLE: ChoreTracker
Late-phase interaction framework
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88. Introduction
Problem identification
Context scenarios
Key path scenarios
Validation scenarios
Other uses
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89. Check your design with validation
scenarios
Activity:
Test design with scenarios
other than the key path.
Not extreme edge cases
but fairly common
circumstances.
Return to Secondary
personas.
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90. Alternative scenarios
Alternative scenarios explore possibilities (whereas
context & key path focused on ideals and probables)
• Consider failure of system
• Explore “What if...?”
• Mitigate risks
• View system as a quality assurance person would
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91. EXAMPLE: ChoreTracker
Logged-in states
URL management of
members
Enticements
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92. Never forget design is iterative
Adjust your solutions,
scenarios, and start from
scratch if you need to!
Fundamental design cycle is
iterative.
• Returning to earlier steps
with insights gained from
more advanced steps
produces great design
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93. Persona-based usability testing
Sometimes there is no budget or time for formal or
even guerrilla usability testing.
Validation scenarios may be your only opportunity to
sanity-check wireframes before proceeding to
development & deployment.
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94. CLASS EXERCISE: Validation LubeSoft
scenarios (time permitting)
Validation Scenarios
What are some alternative
scenarios to explore?
What are the main edge
cases the developers care
about?
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95. Introduction
Problem identification
Context scenarios
Key path scenarios
Validation scenarios
Other uses
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96. Importance of communication
Narrative is
extremely powerful
way to describe
interactive product
behaviors
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97. Key deliverable:
persuasive, explanatory material
Communication Scenarios
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99. Conversation
?
How would communication
scenarios be tailored for
various audiences?
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100. Scenarios can be employed in many
other ways throughout development
Uses Potential Misuses
• Usability testing: basis of • Freewheeling storyboarding:
protocols can be too pie-in-the-sky if not
• Testing: support formal based on user needs
verification & validation testing • Use cases: can be too rigid when
• Marketing education and used as requirements authoring
training: provide insights to tool
central workflows • Agile development: can be too
loose if not based on true
understanding of user
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101. Conversation de l’Agile
?
How do you use scenarios in
your Agile IxD practice today?
What’s the relationship of
user stories to key path
scenarios?
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102. Introduction
Problem identification
Context scenarios
Key path scenarios
Validation scenarios
Other uses
In summary
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103. Indispensable tool in your kit
Scenarios are a fundamental IxD practice since
all experiences unfold over time
• Efficient way to synthesize research
• User-centered way to define requirements
• Powerful method for conceiving interaction
design solutions
• Compelling form of design communication
May the flow be with you!
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Elizabeth Bacon Scenarios for Design
104. Thank you!
Email:
ixd@elizabethbacon.com
Twitter:
@ebacon
Recommended reading:
Kim Goodwin, “Designing for the Digital Age” Wiley Publishing
Alan Cooper, Robert Riemann and David Cronin “About Face 3”
Wiley Publishing
My future book! :)
Interaction10
Elizabeth Bacon Scenarios for Design