Activity scenarios
Scenarios are essentially stories that describe specific activities within a work environment. They show ‘a day in the life’ of a user. They help user interface designers, development team members and users envision how a system will support work or other activities in the future.
What we do
We develop a persona based on real users we have observed (though not matching any one of them directly). We describe how the user would interact with the site or application in real life, what they would be trying to achieve, and how it affects them.
Benefits
Scenarios help everyone in the team understand and agree what we’re trying to achieve, without any need for complicated technical diagrams or explanations.
The scenario will be used as the basis for the design – that is, the screens or pages we design will show how that user in that situation would operate the site or system.
Real-life example
This scenario is for a banking web site’s personal banking section.
“Jenny, 28 and Warren, 30, have a combined income of $65,000. They are looking to buy a house worth $320,000 and have $40,000 that they can use as a deposit. They are current customers and normally do all their banking over the phone or by going in to their local branch. However, it is a Sunday and the branches are closed. They decide to use the web site to research the loan options the bank offers.
They type in the site’s URL. From the homepage they start looking for information about home loans. They want to find out about the bank’s home loan packages.
Firstly, they are not sure if the bank will lend them the amount they need for the house (they are not eligible for first a first-home-buyers loan). They need to work out how much the bank will lend them. They both have credit cards with $1000 limits.
Once they know if the bank is likely to lend them the amount they need, they then look into the following:
- What the start fees and charges are going to be
- If there is a redraw facility
- What penalties they may have to pay (if any) if they pay out early or decide to exit from the loan and refinance with someone else
- What the repayments are going to be
- If the bank can also offer them house and contents insurance.
Jenny and Warren are happy with the information they have found, and now they want to begin the application process.”
