[Sigia-l] RE: Use cases and user centric design (was sitepath diagramming)

[Doug Howell (IT)]

Katherine  Marshak wrote:

Briefly, we use a variety of requirements elicitation & user research
techniques to inform the development of both a use case model and a site
map early in the project. We often develop personas to supplement actor
descriptions. (Actors are part of the use case approach. Actors
represent the roles that people & systems play in relation to the
application/site being developed.) We complement the use case model and
specifications with wireframes and navigation diagrams. We strive to
keep user interface details out of the use cases so they focus on
functionality. This gives us flexibility to improve the interface and
interaction design without changing the underlying requirements.


The use case discussion hit home for me. We are still trying to find the most helpful combination of deliverables. We started our foray into object-oriented programming by creating use cases. We created what we thought was a very good template, combining some of the best ideas from several printed sources, consultants and experience. However, we kept sabotaging ourselves because we couldn't grasp the iterative nature of the development process. We were trying to use object-oriented techniques inside a traditional, "waterfall" mindset. We ended up in "analysis paralysis" because we were trying to create _perfect_ use cases. People were spending way too much time trying to perfect the language, trying to make sure it covered every possible scenario, and having a very difficult time figuring out how to document alternate and exception flows.

What we're trying now is replacing the main, alternate and exception flow narratives with flow charts (Visio) which we call business activity workflows. The developers seem to get more out of them, and the business people don't have to worry so much about language (except learning a few symbols). These diagrams then become the basis of screen flows.

Thanks,
Doug Howell
Information Architect
Borders Group Inc.