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

[Laura Scheirer Quinn]

Anna wrote -

> Did you find that developers pressed for much more detail in the use cases
> than you originally thought was necessary (both of you)?

I've been using use cases a fair amount for a number of years, and personally, I find them to be better suited to more detailed documentation than high level stuff.  I feel it's important to document overall feature sets, general functionality, and even mid-level design in a conceptual, visual way that's easily understandable by the team, client, and users (if applicable).  I find that although most people can be trained to understand the formats, many have a hard time synching it up with reality (running a simulation, if you want to bring threads together) to review it robustly.  I'm a big fan of prototypes, diagrams, etc. instead.

I find use cases invaluable, however, for the nitty gritty of how the interaction design actually works.  There's many things in a detailed site that aren't easily spec-able in a page format (either in wireframes or a description of a wireframe, for instance).  Take a checkout process, for instance-- when you hit the buy button, there's still a whole lot of user experience to go.  What happens if they've given an invalid field entry?  Or the credit card doesn't go through?  Or the item is out of stock after all, now that you check it?  Use cases are great for this stuff.  And it tends to be stuff that I take responsibility for, that doesn't depend heavily on client or user review.

Laura