Scenario Design in UX Discipline
Every successful business needs a scenario to make a feasibility report. Even though you're starting a new business, you'll be needing a scenario design. There are different types of scenarios for different outcomes, which we'll discuss in the next section of this article. This article aims to give you an idea of how vital is a scenario design for the business level.
In this article, we'll target some of the important facts about scenario design, which we already give some in this brief introduction. Also, with that, we'll see what exactly is the scenario design from the business point of view and its different types that are used before the product development.
To be honest, this topic is one of the most important issues we've ever discussed. All you need is to stick with your computer's screen and enjoy the moment!
What is Scenario Design?
A Scenario design is the first thing to do before going for the general or actual design of a product. In scenario design, many facts about the process are reconsidered. It's like telling a story to someone and re-examine the critical points of the story. The same goes for the scenario design. In simple words, scenarios are the most substantial way to plan for future happenings to design a finer product.
You've to point out different interaction points of the business and shape them into other scenario models. Well, scenario design is not a single element. It consists of varying user-type scenarios and models. Each type has its own specialty and way to design.
Let's first define the factors on which scenarios are mostly designed:
- User's Background: Identifying the user's background, who they are, and which skills and knowledge they got?
- Goals: Identifying the needs of the business and what they are looking for?
- Job: What they need to do to achieve the objective?
- Circumstances of use: How would they react to your design?
- Conditions: Will/Where they'll use your product?
Well, these were some factors or questions are asked before scenario design. After considering the factors or questions asked, the next step is to consider which type of scenario to follow:
Types of Scenarios
1.Alternative Situations: A type of scenario describing future happenings and alternative salutations that occurs for the business circumstances.
2.Error Handling: This type of scenario deals with the problems of how to handle difficult situations. If any problem occurs between the business goals, this scenario will take place to describe the solution for a particular problem.
3.Dismissive Scenario: Also called Negative Scenario, deals with the security risks, safety hazards, and other negative aspects of the business.
Sequence Scenario: This type of scenario offers a list of tasks that are ordered by time, representing the track of events.
4.Simulation: Simulation scenarios are those which are designed graphically to explain the vivid image of the situation, like telling stories with the help of static/motion picture.
5.Use Case: Use case scenario mostly use in Unified Modeling Language (UML). It consists of an Actor, a Goal, and some text represents different use cases.
6.Story: The way of explaining different scenarios inside the use case, possibly a description or text on how a user can achieve the particular goal.
That's it! A brief introduction with a proper definition of scenario design comes to an end. The types of scenarios can vary accordingly to different situations. Some other types of scenarios are still out there to be explained, but we've guided you to the most important and widely used ones.
An Example of Everyday Scenario Design
Well, designing a scenario would be an exciting and easy job to do. There are so many real-world examples available to describe scenario design, even though you can develop a scenario of your daily life. All you have to do is to learn some basics of scenario design. Well, the construction of the scenario is another topic we'll discuss later, but first, let us discuss some of its examples.
Let's take yourself as an example. First of all, make your brain a think tank of ideas and various information. We're going for an easy and straightforward scenario for your better understanding.
Suppose you're guiding someone who doesn't know how to withdraw money or use an automated teller machine (ATM). Take a minute or two to think, how would you guide the other person to use ATM? Of course, you'll guide him/her step by step by to withdraw money from ATM. These steps-by-steps guides are we call in scenario design "Flow of Events." Each and every step that you are following, from inserting a card to taking the cash out of the machine, is the flow of events. The combination of flow of events makes the entire scenario design.
Common Uses for Scenario Design
The scenarios can be used in any department of life—however, scenario design is mainly used in computer system designs. Only more influential organizations and businesses make use of scenario design. These scenarios help them to solve their problems and roll forward to a particular goal.
In the sense of computer, the meaning of scenario is the prediction of interaction between the user's roles, and also includes technical system (hardware, software). In comparison, the extensive use of scenario design is in software engineering. In fact, it is the most crucial thing in software engineering as it is a frequent part of the System Development Life Cycle (SDLC) Process.
In addition, scenarios are used to define the behavior of the software. Following are the uses of scenarios in system development:
- Requirement Analysis
- User & Designer Communication
- Design Rationale
- Software Design
- Implementation
- Documentation
- Testing
- Training
The Relationship Between Scenario Design and UX
As we discussed so far, scenarios are the stories that team members create to describe the possible actions the users may take to achieve the system's goal. Scenario design is the best way to visualize the things that the users might need. User stories are the other thing that makes some confusions because it includes short statements and only describes the users' goal.
In a user scenario, every flow of the event is considered—one of the things that also describe in scenario design which user attention. A good user experience means good user attention. In the system development, everything stops working when it comes to user experience. Of course, in a computer environment, user attention means everything for the business as well as for the designers.
Scenario design is like designing a user interface for a website. While designing the user interface (UI), every design element points towards the user experience (UX). Everything needs to be perfectly placed. On the other hand, scenario design's features pointing toward the user's goal.
Both the scenario design and user experience have the same type of approach to meet users' or customers' needs. Well, that's it! A well-discussed subject comes to an end. In this article, we've seen different scenarios with the help of various examples and their uses.
