Are use case documents essentially user flows in word form?

Question

I'm writing an use case for an app I'm building and I realized that it's essentially an userflow, but in word form.

E.g, you have tasks to complete, you figure out the different steps and alternative flows to complete the task.

Answer 1

The short answer is yes.

The slightly longer answer, at least for me, is that use cases provide context and detail which a userflow wouldn't. A userflow has steps or statuses but doesn't usually go into the level of detail that a use case would. A use case should capture both the user steps and the system process (not actions) that go into it. It should be usable for technical teams to create the tech spec.

Answer 2

Maybe. User cases exist independently of users knowing a flow, or all flows would be the same, which is obviously wrong. But depending on interpretation of what a user case is, for some specific user cases the answer is yes.

To explain the above, let's suppose you create an app that applies funny filters to photos. The user case here is: see app promoted, download app..... no idea. The user flow once the app is downloaded will be defined by the developer, the user probably won't have any idea on what to do or why to do it, she just saw an ad with the results and that's it, but she trusts the app will be built in a way that she'll be able to achieve such results. Or at leas SOME result. Or simply download app, see she'll be charged and do delete it.

She didn't have a need, she doesn't have a plan, there's no pre-existent user case whatsoever, because most frameworks and models like UML, OUM or ICONIX require the user/actor to knowingly interact within the model.

TL;DR

It will entirely depend on the interpretation of user case and the paradigm we use to define the models