Use case

A use case is a written account of how a particular product, feature, or concept is utilized, or alternatively, how a specific challenge or pain point can be addressed. Organizations typically rely on use cases to highlight how their products or services can benefit their customers.

How use cases can help create better customer experiences

Although creating use cases requires a fair bit of work, they’re well worth the effort. A well-constructed use case can provide experience teams with valuable insights to help identify pain points, zero in on key areas for improvement, and identify ways to measure success.

How do you create a use case?

There are several elements involved in creating a use case:

  • The user: the person or type of person who will interact with your product or service
  • What they’re interacting with: this could be a functional product, prototype, messaging, design element, or anything else you’d like feedback on
  • User goals or tasks: this is what you hope users will accomplish with your product or service
  • What you expect to happen, and what might happen: people don’t always behave the way we think they will, so it’s helpful to map out flows that show the expected behavior as well as some alternative paths to successfully complete the task or achieve the goal

Once your use case is constructed, you can use this framework to solicit rapid human insight from your target audience, enabling your team to iteratively and continually improve your experience for each particular use case.