Last updated on Jun 11, 2024

How do you create realistic scenarios for web applications?

Scenario-based design is a powerful technique for creating web applications that meet the needs and goals of real users. It involves imagining and describing realistic situations where users interact with your web application, and using them to guide your design decisions and evaluations. In this article, you will learn how to create realistic scenarios for web applications, and why they are useful for design research.

1 Identify your target users

Before you can create realistic scenarios, you need to know who your target users are, and what they want to achieve with your web application. You can use various methods to gather user data, such as interviews, surveys, personas, or user journeys. The key is to identify the main characteristics, motivations, pain points, and goals of your target users, and use them to define your user segments.

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Caio Almeida

Strategy Consultant, Head of CX Insights, Consumer Behavior, Speaker
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I think it's important to consider behavioral data to identify the most engaged users and those who tend to churn. With this, we were able to understand the best engagement mechanisms to replicate across the entire base, and we understood the "abandonment of use" to mitigate this behavior in the rest of the base.

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Harrison Telyan

📈 Helping startups grow faster with design • RISD & Y Combinator alum • Imgur's Founding Designer • Co-Host of BLD
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Understanding your target users' characteristics, motivations, and pain points is crucial before creating realistic scenarios for your web application. How do you currently gather and utilize user data to define your user segments and tailor your design to their needs?

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2 Define the context of use

Next, you need to define the context of use for your web application. This means considering the physical, social, and emotional factors that affect how users interact with your web application. For example, where, when, and how often do they use it? What devices and browsers do they use? What are their expectations and preferences? What are the challenges and opportunities they face? The context of use helps you create realistic scenarios that reflect the real-world situations of your users.

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Caio Almeida

Strategy Consultant, Head of CX Insights, Consumer Behavior, Speaker
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In addition to defining the context of use, we need to hierarchically identify which elements of this context will have a positive impact on the journey and which will have a negative impact. With this, we were able to extract actions to improve the journey.

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Harrison Telyan

📈 Helping startups grow faster with design • RISD & Y Combinator alum • Imgur's Founding Designer • Co-Host of BLD
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Defining the context of use for your web application is crucial to understanding how users interact with it. Consider factors like where, when, and how often they use it, as well as their devices, expectations, and challenges. How do you currently assess and incorporate the context of use to create realistic user scenarios for your web application?

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3 Generate scenario ideas

Now, you can start generating scenario ideas that illustrate how your target users would use your web application to achieve their goals in the context of use. You can use brainstorming, storytelling, or sketching techniques to come up with different scenario ideas. The idea is to explore various possibilities and alternatives, and not to limit yourself to one solution. You can also use existing data, such as user feedback, analytics, or competitors' analysis, to inspire your scenario ideas.

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Caio Almeida

Strategy Consultant, Head of CX Insights, Consumer Behavior, Speaker
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When generating scenarios, I suggest focusing on two types of scenarios: - greater impact on the business; - with a longer history or signs of problems.

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Harrison Telyan

📈 Helping startups grow faster with design • RISD & Y Combinator alum • Imgur's Founding Designer • Co-Host of BLD
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Generating scenario ideas involves exploring how your target users will interact with your web application to achieve their goals. Use brainstorming, storytelling, or sketching to explore different possibilities. How do you currently generate and validate scenario ideas to ensure they reflect real user interactions and provide valuable insights?

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4 Describe the scenarios

Once you have some scenario ideas, you should describe them in a clear and concise way, using a simple format like who the user is, their goal, the situation or problem, the steps taken to achieve the goal, and the outcome or result. You can also add details like emotions, dialogues, or screenshots to make the scenarios more engaging and vivid. But be careful not to add unnecessary or unrealistic information that could take away from the main point of the scenario.

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Harrison Telyan

📈 Helping startups grow faster with design • RISD & Y Combinator alum • Imgur's Founding Designer • Co-Host of BLD
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Crafting clear and concise scenarios involves outlining the user, their goal, the problem, the steps taken, and the outcome. Adding relevant details like emotions or screenshots can make them more engaging, but avoid unnecessary fluff. How do you ensure your scenarios are both vivid and focused, effectively illustrating the user journey without overcomplicating it?

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5 Evaluate and refine the scenarios

In order to ensure that your scenarios are realistic, relevant, and useful for your design research, you must evaluate and refine them. Consider various criteria such as whether the scenarios are based on user data and evidence, cover main user segments, goals, and contexts of use, highlight user needs, pain points, and opportunities, provide enough detail and clarity to guide design decisions and evaluations, and inspire new ideas and solutions for your web application. Additionally, you can test your scenarios with real or potential users to validate assumptions, identify gaps or errors, and improve them. By doing this, you can create scenarios that help you understand and empathize with your users in order to create web applications that solve their problems and meet their goals.

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Harrison Telyan

📈 Helping startups grow faster with design • RISD & Y Combinator alum • Imgur's Founding Designer • Co-Host of BLD
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To ensure your scenarios are realistic and effective, rigorously evaluate and refine them. Use criteria like user data, coverage of key segments and contexts, clarity, and detail. Testing with real users can validate assumptions and highlight gaps. How do you currently evaluate and refine your scenarios to ensure they guide your design process and truly address user needs and goals?

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6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?

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Design Research

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How do you create realistic scenarios for web applications?

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1 Identify your target users

2 Define the context of use

3 Generate scenario ideas

4 Describe the scenarios

5 Evaluate and refine the scenarios

6 Here’s what else to consider

Design Research

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