Scenarios and design cognition

Scenarios of human activity are widely used in many facets of the design of software systems. This methodological development can be understood in terms of design cognition: Scenarios support and enhance the solution-first strategy which is typical of, and perhaps fundamental to, expert problem-solving for "ill-defined" problems like design and planning.

1. Introduction

Scenario-based design is a family of techniques in which the use of a future system is concretely described at an early point in the development process. Narrative descriptions of envisioned usage episodes are then employed in a variety of ways throughout the development of the system. Scenario-based design changes the focus of design work from defining system operations to describing how people will use a system to accomplish work tasks and other activities.