Essential Use Cases in the Design of Multi-channel Service Offerings - A Study of Internet Banking

This article presents the results of a qualitative study of a multi-channel bank. It aims at developing new methods of gathering user requirements for web interfaces, joining HCI and Marketing perspectives. The results obtained so far indicate that, as most of financial operations are functionally available in the different service channels, experience requirements become increasingly important. In this context, essential use cases are particularly valuable in improving the process of gathering customer requirements. As they allow the analysis of users' interaction needs in a channel-independent way, their use can improve decisions on what services are best suited to each channel, to effectively address customer needs across different interaction modes, and make an efficient allocation of resources among channels.