Personas and how they are used in user-centered design

Personas and how they are used in user-centered design

ummm...we are gonna need a new website.

Ummm, Peter, I'm getting some complaints on the web site. So, I'm gonna need you build a new

site this Saturday, mmmkay.


Instead of design by committee, we're going to do it

right this time. We'll be implementing a user-centered

design approach.


It'll include contextual inquiry, prototyping,

usability testing, and affinity diagramming. But we'll start

with personas.


Ummm, yeah. I'm not sure what language that was. Just,

ummm...yeah. Good talk.

What we're going to talk about:

•  What are the key points of user-centered design?

•  What is a persona?

•  Why do we care?

•  See examples of data sources for personas.

•  Learn how to conduct persona character development.

•  How do we make personas useful?

•  Review what we learned.

Key Points of User-Centered Design

•  Design is based upon an explicit understanding of users,

tasks, and environments through personas.

•  Users are involved throughout design and development.

•  Design is driven and refined by user-centred evaluation.

•  Process is iterative.

•  Design addresses the whole user experience.

•  Design team includes multidisciplinary skills and

perspectives.

In simple terms, personas are a fictional characters with real-world attributes that represent your customer/constituent base.


Ummmkay. So, why do we care?

Personas require designers and developers to step away from a functionality or requirements document and understand how people actually interact with the product.

You'll discover more about your users than you thought you knew, and you'll better understand your user’s needs and pain points.

Questions you might ask on a website redesign:

1.  Who are our users?

2.  What are the users’ tasks and goals?

3.  What are the users’ experience levels?

4.  What functions do the users need?

5.  What information might the users need, and in what form do

they need it?

6.  How do users think the site should work?

7.  Does the interface utilize different inputs modes?


Ummm, how about the TPS reports?

It all starts with the data...

•  Purchasing Information

•  CRM Reports - Current Customer Data

•  Surveys

•  Marketing Research

•  Industry Trends

What does your current site tell you?

•  Website Traffic Analytics

•  Search Queries

•  Social Demographics

•  Social Media Usage

•  Advertising Analytics


Now we put all this together and tell a story.

•  Name

•  Picture

•  Demographics

•  Roles and Responsibilities

•  Goals and Tasks

•  Motivations and Needs

•  Environment and Context

•  Brief Description of Person

Components of a Persona

MYU MYU

MYU

MYU

•  Having a very busy life, when Puja is not at work, she is always on the run. She uses the Internet on her phone most of the time, and if she has to spend much time trying to figure out how to use a site, she loses her patience and moves on with her day.

•  She can't live without her iPhone. In fact she's a huge Apple fan. Puja has a Mac, iPad, and iPhone.

Let's dig a little deeper to further develop Puja's character...

•  Puja uses her iPhone and iPad for everything - from texting and social media on her iPhone to online purchases and Netflix on her iPad

•  Puja's Internet usage, for personal needs, tends to be during lunch and late in the evening. That's when she catches up with friends and occasionally does a little shopping.

•  She considers herself an early adopter, and her friends are always asking what kinds of apps they should download.

•  She's never given money to her university foundation before, but now that she's been working for three years, she feels like she could give back.

•  She recently thought of giving back to her university after she "liked" the university's Facebook page.

•  Puja makes $55,000 a year as a marketing manager for a nonprofit, and she's been out of school for three years.


With the personas complete, we can then run

through scenarios and create functional specifications.

Scenarios are narratives that use personas to describe “a day in the life”, best-case situation, worst-case situation, etc...

They are used to validate personas and to capture majority of use cases.

They are used with personas throughout the design, development, and QA process.

Let's look at a possible scenario...

Puja takes a few minutes to check Facebook and email during her lunch break at a local sandwich shop. She reads an email newsletter posted by her university alumni group with a link to the website for a end-of-year giving opportunity. She visits the foundation site not expecting to make a donation, but she's curious about what's involved.

Key Considerations for Puja:

•  Needs to be mobile friendly •  Easy to use with simple steps

•  Not interested in taking the time to read much more than it takes to make a decision to give

•  Multiple social engagement opportunities

•  Visually pleasing flat page design

•  Clear Calls to Action (CTA) to drive action down conversion funnel

•  Ability to complete the entire transaction online

Outputs and Inputs Outputs: •  Better definition of users' needs and wants •  Tools for designers and developers Inputs: •  Starting point for functional specifications •  Used throughout the rest of design and development -

design, content strategy, and quality assurance.


Yeah, so you're telling me this isn't design by

committee?

What we talked about:

•  We learned the basics behind user-centered design.

•  We defined a persona.

•  We learned why they are important.

•  We saw examples of commonly used data sources for

personas.

•  We learned how to conduct persona character development.

•  We conducted scenarios around personas, and we found out

how they are used in the development lifecycle.


Ahh, so it looks like I'm also gonna need you to go

ahead and come in on Sunday, too...

Thank You! Sean Hudson [email protected] @seanhudson

Technology

Personas and how they are used in user-centered design