The day-in-the-life scenario: A technique for capturing user experience in complex work environments

We study complex work environments to enable innovative improvements. In this paper we report on a technique we have created to depict the complex work environments of operators in IT operations control centers, developed after a 3-day field study in a large operations center. Because of security issues and tight time constraints on the operators' work, this environment is not accessible to software teams. The technique is a Day-in-the-life scenario, which extends on the work of personas and scenarios. The scenario has two forms: a narrative, and a diagram. Our narrative captures typical daily events in the life of the operator and conveys the gist of their day in terms of attentional focus and tensions between and within their activities. The Day-in-the-life diagram uses the UML sequence diagram notation to depict the narrative visually, bringing important details of the day to the fore. These techniques especially capture the many activities of operators and the subsequent demands on an operators' attention.