FAQs

6. What is a user scenario?

One of the key elements to consider when developing a brief is your target audience. It is important to identify a range of typical user profiles – this will serve as valuable information when assembling more detailed parts of the brief such as the design and technical specifications.

As staff members of the same organisation but with different remits, you will share an understanding of the possible needs of your customers or clients, but perhaps with differing perspectives. It is worth exploring how visitors to your site will achieve a given goal or *scenario*.

In a nutshell, you will first profile your users. Then think about the typical users that you have profiled. List at least 5 specific tasks or actions that a user will perform when visiting your site. They can be very straightforward; for example, *contact us for more information* or more complex; for example, *find application details for grants available to new media start-ups*, but they should be common and/or important tasks.

Develop a user scenario around each task, by storyboarding the steps a user might take to perform the allocated task.

By taking the time to think in detail about typical users and scenarios, you will be better placed to make sure visitors to your site can get the material they need quickly and easily. These procedures should be revisited as soon as the design process is underway and developed in more detail as part of usability tests on the prototype model.

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