Scenario based design

Introduction:

Scenario based design is a methodology that supports designers and design teams in their creative
and reflective activities by providing an explicit means to explore future use. This is achieved by
providing flexible and vivid representations of product use – the scenarios – that support how the
desired future use can be imagined, and stimulate reflection on product and service ideas with
regard to how they are used in different situations.

Scenario-based design can serve as a common language that everyone can understand, irrespective
of their backgrounds, they create a common ground so that discussion can take place among the
stakeholders concerning the current and future use.

Scenario based design supports user-centered design processes, aimed at developing products and
services.

Scenario based design has matured in human-computer interaction and software design, the
application of scenarios in product and service design is still in early development.

Challenge:

Usability and user experience depend on both a product's characteristics as well as the situation in
which a product is used. In order to anticipate use-related design issues in the design process, it is
important to understand the use situations or scenarios in which the products will be used, and how
the product can lead to desirable future use.

Although scenario evaluation generally leads to a less valid result than prototype testing, its
flexibility allows for early and quick explorations of future use practice. Therefore, scenarios can
accelerate an iterative design process. As such, they serve as a valuable addition to prototype
testing.
Scenarios consist of several elements:

Starting state:

- Actor with a certain goal with regard to a certain product in a setting.

- The setting consists of all context aspects that can potentially influence the interaction, such
as the physical environment, and objects and individuals within that environment.
- E.g.
o Researcher Julie (actor) wants to give a presentation about one of her recent studies
(goal) at a large conference (setting). The presentation is in a large conference room.
The audience is still entering the room (setting) as she starts to use the presentation
microphone (product).
Plot of the scenario:

- Actor starts to perform activities aimed at achieving their goal, the product responds to
these actions and/or when outside events trigger or interrupt the interaction between actor
and the product.
- E.g.
o Julie puts the headset on her head and tries to attach the transmitter to her dress.
Since this does not work, she puts the transmitter on the table in front of her. She
then pushes the on/off button (user action). A small light starts to burn on the
device (system action). Then a conference organizer asks her if she has any
questions about the device (event). When Julie tries to explain that she does not
know how to attach the transmitter, she finds out that the whole audience can hear
what she is saying because the microphone has already been turned on. She then
tries to find the mute button (new goal)
Scenario results in issues that provide input on how to (re)design a product:

Take note of the issues, they provide input into the re-design of a product.

Issues can relate to:

- User experiences to improve or retain

- Usability qualities (effectiveness/efficiency)
- Performance (or other higher level qualities).

e.g. for Julie:

presenter is not happy because she does not know how to attach the transmitter to her dress. A
design project could then be aimed at creating a presentation microphone that is easy to attach to
different types of clothing. Thus, the scenario presented here with its accompanying use issue can
serve as a ‘user requirement’ for the product or service to be designed.
Scenario types:

How scenarios can be deployed to explore use. These explorations are based on the knowledge and
assumptions of the designers themselves.

Distinguish between types with regard to their content.

Current use scenarios/actual practice scenarios/problem scenarios.

- Frame of reference for evaluating solutions.

- Description depicting the current use of a product.

Future use scenarios

- Describe possible (near) future use

- Describes interaction between a user in a certain setting and a new design proposal for a
product.
- Communicate the envisioned use of a design proposal.
- Should be accompanied by possible problem scenarios, because by only using ideal scenarios
there is the risk that undesirable side effects are overlooked.

Too many scenarios can hamper communication and overcomplicate the design process. Select only
most relevant scenarios, especially if they are used as a frame of reference or as communication
tool. Distinguish between:

- Frequent use –
o Primary uses, greatest frequency of action.
- Necessary use –
o All actions that must be performed in order for the product to be effective, but not
performed frequently.
- Edge case – scenarios
o Represent the interactions that are neither necessary nor frequent, and do not
require careful design.
Envisioning Use Technique:

All members of a product development team come together and share ideas about product use.

Results in large collection of scenarios, and leads to a ‘shared vision on product use’ within the
product development team.

Scenarios are explored based by certain steps:

- Remembering
o Story-telling to gather stories of actual product use as experienced by the designers,
or their observations.
o Stories: real product use, Scenarios: hypothetical product use.
o Stories serve as a trigger for creating associations, possibly leading to other
scenarios.

- Imagining
o Provide participants with images of random people and use contexts, have them
think about possible ways in which these people might use the product within
specific context.

- Experiencing
o Select 2 or 3 scenarios and either role-play them or act them out in a scenario game
from the imagining step.

- Envisioning
o Designers come up with solutions to fit the scenarios and show how the solution
should be integrated into the chosen scenario.
o Generate quick mock-ups and show the scenario in another role-play
o Another way of envisioning use is to have participants write down the desired future
scenarios in which the solution is represented as a black box.

When exploring scenarios it is always necessary to maintain a critical view on how a scenario
unfolds, while at the same time making positive issues explicit. Design process can be aimed at
eliminating the problems as well as keeping/enhancing the positive issues.
Scenarios as a frame of reference for evaluations:

To obtain valid current or future scenarios, it is necessary to involve users to gain insights into the
different scenario elements and to find out how they are woven together. We distinguish between
approaches with regard to the extent to which users are involved in the generation of scenarios.
Users can be directly or indirectly involved:

in participatory scenario generation, scenarios are generated jointly with users;

in indirect participatory scenario generation, designers create scenarios themselves, based on

several analyses of the scenario elements, and then they have these scenarios validated by users

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