Scenario-based design

This short exerpt contains a very interesting image: Overview of the Scenario-Based Framework.

So, what's scenario-based design all about?

In scenario-based design, you identify actions within the context of a given scenario which you want to support and which have high priorities within that particular scenario. Descriptions of those high priority actions drive the entire creative development process.

We all try to start by identifying the problem. We use requirements analysis - coming from the client's wildest dreams. And how can we UX designers contribute to those requirements if we know nothing about the client's specific target domain? What can be worse than addressing the wrong problem? We try to avoid such mistakes through empirical design (design based upon observation alone) or through participatory design (design by committee - how good can that be?). It's easy to lose the big picture while happily specifying functions and designing features out of scope and context.

Scenario-based design techniques belong to a complementary tradition that seek so exploit the complexity and fluidity of design by trying to learn more about the structure and dynamics of the problem domain, trying to see the situation in many different ways, and interacting intimately with the concrete elements of the situation, writes John Millar Carroll, author of the book Making Use: Scenario-Based Design of Human-Computer Interactions.

I came across this very good 2005 ibm.com article: Unified Scenario-Based Design, Part 1: Methodological principles. The article is long, but definitely worth a look.

So, dear reader and UX expert - is scenario-based design and storytelling part of your daily job? No? Well, why not give it a try?