Personas, User Stories and Use Cases

What key behavioural and psychological elements are included in a persona format?

Goals and tasks, anxieties and motivations, frustrations and concerns, needs and expectations.

What is a user group in persona development?

A defined category of users (e.g., aged persons, students, children) that helps structure and define multiple personas.

What personal capacities might be documented in a persona template?

Perception, motor, and cognitive capacities.

What is a User Story?

A short statement or abstract derived from analyzing the user and their need or goal, specifying who the user is, what they need, and why.

Why are stories central to user experience?

They put things in context and focus on the holistic experience rather than just the artifact.

What is the standard template format for writing a user story?

As a [role], I want [feature] because [reason] (or As a [role], I can [feature] so that [reason]).

How do user stories benefit a development team?

They document practical information about user needs/motivations and help estimate the roadmap to deliver the product.

What tool and size guidelines are recommended when writing physical user stories on cards?

Use index cards/post-its no larger than 3" x 5" and write with a marker (pen will allow writing too much).

What approach should designers take when writing user stories iteratively?

Write out all currently known stories, use them to connect the dots to see the full project scope, and continually add more stories.

What is a scenario in UX design?

A situation capturing how users perform tasks on a site/app, describing their motivations, goals, questions, and suggested paths.

How does a scenario relate to a user story?

It is essentially a development of a user story and can encompass multiple target users.

What benefit do scenarios provide when communicating with stakeholders?

They provide context to the intended UX, bridging communication gaps between creative and business thinking.

Why might scenarios be skipped on aggressive project schedules?

They are more complete and detailed than user stories, so they are sometimes viewed as superfluous under tight deadlines.

What are the key stages in scenario planning?

Scenario mapping (team meeting to exchange strategy), defining key tasks, and scenario analysis (walking through user steps).

What elements are included in a scenario map diagram?

Key steps, questions, comments, and ideas/features.

What is a Use Case Specification?

A textual, structured description of system functionality specifying detailed actor-system interaction in a dialog format.

What standard sections are contained in a Use Case document?

Use case name, actors, goal, description/overview, pre-conditions, post-conditions, basic path, alternative paths, and exception paths.

Why have traditional detailed use cases fallen out of favor in agile development?

They take a long time to create and are overly prescriptive, focusing heavily on technical requirements rather than agile user needs.

Who typically uses user stories/scenarios versus use cases?

UX designers primarily use user stories and scenarios; business analysts traditionally use use cases.