Taking the “You” Out of User: Application Development Using Personas

Summary: • Applications are developed by developers. • Developers tend to focus on features and technical issues. • Focus on the eventual user is lost in a sea of conflicting

demands. • Personas are a technique to create and maintain focus on the

user by creating a “virtual user” that the developer can understand and create a relationship with and that can be kept in mind when making design decisions.

Taking the “You” Out of User: Application Development Using Personas

Benefits of Personas: • Provides external-focused target• Enables developers to maintain focus• Allows common agreement on goals• Helps prioritize design and development efforts• Allows a common reference point

Taking the “You” Out of User: Application Development Using Personas

Uses for Personas: • For surrogate user testing. • To help advocate for your users. • To communicate user needs. • To evaluate new features. • To help make design decisions. • To help weigh business decisions. • For task analysis and use cases. • For customer service scripts.

Taking the “You” Out of User: Application Development Using Personas

What constitutes a Persona?• Name• Age• Job Title• Background • Goals• PhotoIdea is to create a “virtual user” that can be kept in

mind when making design decisions

Taking the “You” Out of User: Application Development Using Personas

How is a Persona created?• User interviews• Find commonality of themes• Personas are not made up they are discovered

from talking with users• Personas are defined by goals• Look at workflow and underlying needs

Taking the “You” Out of User: Application Development Using Personas

Wendy is 24 years old. Wendy is a junior nurse at a university hospital. Wendy graduated near the top of her class. Wendy is cheerful and enthusiastic about her job but often feels overworked. She enjoys going out with friends and playing with her dog, a Labrador retriever named "Goldy". Wendy has grown up with computers and is very comfortable using them. Wendy has a high-speed broadband connection at home and uses the Internet for shopping and dating sites like Match.com. Wendy's goals are to have more freedom and autonomy in her schedule.

Taking the “You” Out of User: Application Development Using Personas

Primary and Secondary Personas• Primary persona represents majority of users

(example: beginners) • Secondary persona represents users not

represented by primary persona (example: experts)

• The primary persona’s needs come first

Taking the “You” Out of User: Application Development Using Personas

Objections to Personas:“It’s weird”Working around objections:• Give persona title rather than name• Eliminate or minimize background information• Use bullet points rather than narrative• Don’t use a photo

No different than market segments• Easier to keep in mind when working• Richer, fuller concept

Taking the “You” Out of User: Application Development Using Personas

More Information ResourcesBringing Your Personas to Life in Real Lifehttp://www.boxesandarrows.com/archives/

bringing_your_personas_to_life_in_real_life.php

Perfecting Your Personashttp://www.cooper.com/newsletters/2001_07/perfecting_your_personas.htm

Personas: Matching a Design to the Users' Goalshttp://www.uie.com/articles/personas/

An introduction to personas and how to create them http://steptwo.com.au/papers/kmc_personas/

Practical Persona Creationhttp://www.evolt.org/article/Practical_Persona_Creation/4090/56111/index.html