Use Case or User Scenario

I’ve heard both tools referenced a number of times. It seems there is confusion between the two. Here’s my understanding. Please feel free to share common experiences and any further clarification.

User Scenarios

• Keep the team speaking the language of user needs and connecting design decisions closely in with the implementation process
• A rich narrative of user interaction with the product that also incorporates persona and environment
• Meant to show how a typical user (persona or constituency) would use a specific option or action
• Documents what the user may do before and/or after they interact with product
• The scenario helps drive the use case … it explains that the user is, for example, typically working on a site or application or blog in a busy office with various distractions, and may have to save progress before publishing and return — and then the use cases would need to reflect that
• Scenario is a good place to point out motivations, distractions and more
• Can be a bit broader, move into how a person got to the site /application and why
• Scenario based approach to design integrates well with Agile’s use of story cards

Use Cases

• A bulleted user – system talk which follows action-response pattern.
• It does not talk about the user’s demographic profile, technical awareness, and environment or context.
• Detail every possible option or action on the site – each result and each variable
• Take user out of the picture to document the system responses to any single action
• Don’t take personal environmental & habitual context into account.
• An intermediate step between the context-rich story the scenario provides, and the cold logic of the developer’s code & “business rules” of the application.
• The people designing the UI, labeling the controls, links and fields, developing the aesthetics and writing content need to know more than just the mechanics of what the user will be doing.
• Descriptions of system behavior, not user behavior. It doesn’t focus on a particular user or kind of user — it focuses on what situations “of use” the system may encounter and how it should respond
• Documents every possible feature and how it should work
• Yes, use cases are flowcharts in words …
• The distinction becomes really apparent (and problematic) when use cases are expanded from ‘functional specifications’ into ‘real life stories’ to explain things to the lay audience
• Use case is a conversation between the system and the user
• A very detailed back and forth of what happens at each click
• Use cases can be done by a developer as well as the designer and often leads to refinement of test cases and QA plans.
• Writing use cases can drain creativity of a designer. Reading them can inform the designer