Set of basic foundational questions to help a UI designer (or user researcher) get up to speed on a project, focused on understanding the core functionality, primary user goals/tasks, and targeted scenarios of use. These questions are meant as a good baseline starting point, and are not comprehensive nor exhaustive!
USER SCENARIOS: A summary of the common “story of use” of the product by the aforementioned typical user
* What circumstances start the product usage?
* What drives the usage? What sustains using the product?
* What decisions happen at what events?
* Where do things happen?
* When do things happen?
* What is the pacing/timing of events and decisions?
* What is the social life of the information? (meaning who else is involved, other actions outside the product that occur, etc.)
* What are the artifacts in the system (or resulting from using the product) and what do they do or indicate? Who else uses them?
* When is the usage complete? What is considered “done”?