Digital Transformation: How Use Cases ( use cases ) can be useful?

A few days before the arrival of summer, I received a call from a client who wanted to optimize her digital platform. She wanted to advance it technically in order to support the organizational strategic vision as well as the evolution of internal needs and the needs of end customers.

Very interesting project, but nevertheless, before falling into a game plan and possible solutions, I suggested that this client take a step back. I suggested that we list together some use case ( use cases ) of its platform and its ecosystem.

What is a use case?

First I have to tell you that I make an important difference between a “use case” and a “use case”.

a use case ( use case ) is a short sentence that represents a task to be accomplished in a given context. We’re really talking about a “ one-liner “. The term would be borrowed from the domain of software engineering , but in many ways it is well suited to apply to the realm of user experience.

We focus our attention on “ use cases “of the internal team and end customers, in order to cover all fronts of our organization (eg: Front-End , Admin and Back office ).

a use case , meanwhile, will be longer and more detailed. It is written from the user’s point of view and details the behavior of the system or interface when responding to a user request.

For a scenario, we are talking more about a process carried out by a user. Each use case is represented as a sequence of simple steps to achieve a goal. It ends when this goal is achieved.

Here are some examples:

Do you see the difference?

Why do use cases?

There are several advantages to producing “ use cases ”Within a digital transformation project. They are particularly useful because:

1. They are fast to list and easy to understand.
2. By enumerating them, we can simultaneously define several company business rules .
3. They also allow you to describe UX requirements, but above all functional .
4. When respected, use cases become a success index when delivering new IT developments.

How do we write them?

Personally, I always start with investigation internally with various key players within the company. I then discuss the personas (external end customers) in order to list in a most exhaustive way the different use cases.

I use a simple spreadsheet which is divided by persona (internal and external) in order to consolidate everything.

I invite you to complete the form below if you would like a copy of this spreadsheet, it will be my pleasure to send it to you.

In conclusion

As UX professionals, we are usually very familiar with the use cases. For me, more and more digital transformation projects nonetheless require a use-case approach.

Why? At first glance, I believe “use cases” relate a lot to the usability of the interface and its design. The “ use cases “, as for them, are more 360 degrees, since they make it possible to cover the different fronts to be considered in a transformation project: Public site ( Front-End ), Dashboard ( Admin ) and company management system ( Back office ).

There is no doubt that the use cases are to be considered by decision-makers whose organization is undertaking a digital transformation . Because they bring people together, facilitate and bring together the different departments (IT, Communication / Marketing, etc.).