Modeling Users: Personas and Goals
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Transcript Modeling Users: Personas and Goals
Modeling Users:
Personas and Goals
Cooper 5
William H. Bowers – [email protected]
Topics
Why Model?
Personas
Personas as a Design Tool
Personas vs. User Roles
Personas vs. Market Segments
User vs. Non-User Personas
William H. Bowers – [email protected]
Topics
Goals
User Goals
Non-User Goals
Constructing Personas
Persona Types
Other Models
Questions & Discussion
William H. Bowers – [email protected]
Why Model?
Represent complex structures,
relationships
Increased understanding, visualization
Based on raw, observed behavior
Synthesize data patterns
William H. Bowers – [email protected]
Personas
Help identify specific users and needs
Identify primary, secondary users
Helps choose the right individuals to
design for
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Personas as a Design Tool
Identify what the product should do
Determine a product’s behavior
Facilitates communication with
stakeholders
Builds consensus and commitment
Measures design effectiveness
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Personas as a Design Tool
Contributes to marketing and sales
Help resolve
– Elastic user
– Self-referential design
– Design edge cases
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The Elastic User
Each designer has own idea of end
user
User definition becomes elastic to fit
designer
Real users are not elastic
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Self-Referential Design
Designers project own goals onto
product
We tend towards technology for it’s
own sake
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Design Edge Cases
Possible situations
Usually not experienced by target
personas
Must be programmed for
Not the design focus
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Personas are Based on
Research
Interviews with users
Information from stakeholders
Information from SMEs
Market research data
Market segmentation models
Literature reviews
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Personas are Represented
as Individuals
User models treated as actual
individuals
Represented as specific individuals
Considered as real users
Represent classes of users in context
Context specific
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Personas are Represented
as Individuals
Not reusable across products
Not archetypes or stereotypes
Do not represent an average user
Represent user examples
May have a collection or cast of
personas for a product
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Personas vs. User Roles
Some similarities
– Seek to describe relationships of users to
products
Roles are abstractions
Personas address goals
Personas are more holistic models
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Personas vs. Market
Segments
Market segments are based on
– Demographics
– Distribution channels
Personas are based on
– Behaviors
– Goals
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User vs. Non-User Personas
Non-user personas include
– Product reviewers
– Columnists
– IT Managers
– Purchasing agents
Driven by business goals
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Goals
Drivers behind user behaviors
Addressed via tasks
Provide answers to product usage
motivation
Inferred from qualitative data
Expressed as simple sentence
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Types of Goals
First priority in design
Goals may be different for:
– Organizations
– Employers
– Customers
– Partners
– End users
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User Goals
Life goals
– Become an expert in my field
– Get promoted quickly
– Exhibit ethics and trust
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User Goals
Experience goals
– Don’t feel stupid
– Minimize or eliminate mistakes
– Feel competent and confident
– Enjoy the product’s use
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User Goals
End goals
– Find the best price for a product
– Finalize a press release
– Process customer orders
– Create software
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Non-User Goals
Customer
– Parents, relatives, friends
– IT Managers, purchasers, management
Security
Maintenance
Customization
Installation
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Non-User Goals
Corporate
– Increase profit
– Increase market share
– Defeat competition
– Use resources efficiently
– Offer more products or services
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Non-User Goals
Technical goals
– Minimize memory use
– Run in a browser
– Safeguard data
– Execute efficiently
– Cross platform usage/consistency
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Constructing Personas
Incorporate information about
– Goals
– Attitudes
– Work or activity flow
– Environment
– Skills and levels
– Frustrations
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Constructing Personas
Revisit the personal hypothesis
Map interviews to behavioral variables
Identify significant behavior patterns
Synthesize characteristics and goals
Check for completeness
Develop narratives
Designate types
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Revisit The Personal
Hypothesis
Compare patterns to assumptions
Do not focus on demographics
Behavioral variables are paramount
15 – 30 variables per role are typical
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Map Interviews To Behavioral
Variables
Map interviewee against variable
range
Precision is not critical
Relative placement is the goal
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Mapping Subjects to Variables
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Identify Significant Behavior
Patterns
Clustering of subjects may ID persona
Clustered behaviors must be causal
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Synthesize Characteristics And
Relevant Goals
Describe such things as
– Potential use environment
– Typical workday
– Current solutions
– Frustrations with existing systems
– Relevant relationships with others
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Check For Completeness
Merge or separate personas
Fill in gaps
Insure distinctness and completeness
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Develop Narratives
Third person narrative
One to two pages
Not a short story
Introduces persona
Sketches a day in the life
Expresses personas product
expectations
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Designate Types
Primary Personas
Secondary Personas
Supplemental Personas
Customer Personas
Served Personas
Negative Personas
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Primary Personas
Primary target for interface design
Multiple interfaces for multiple primary
personas are possible
Not satisfied by designs targeted to
any other persona
Compare goals of different personas
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Secondary Personas
May be satisfied by 1 or 2 additions
Address needs without impeding
primary
Typically, 0 - 2
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Supplemental Personas
Satisfied by primary personas’
interface
May be peripheral stakeholders
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Customer Personas
Not end users
Treated a secondary
May be primary personas
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Served Personas
Not product users
Directly affected by product’s use
Served by interface
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Negative Personas
Non-users
Purely rhetorical
Communicates who is not the design
target
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Other Models
Workflow or sequence reflect
– Process initiation
– Information produced and consumed
– Decisions
– Actions
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Other Models
Artifact models
– Online or paper forms
– Capture commonalities and differences
– Useful to ID best practices
Physical models
– Focus on layout
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Questions & Discussion
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