User Modeling

1. Gabriel Spitz User Modeling Lecture # 7

2. Gabriel Spitz User Interface Design Process Task Analysis/Use Cases NeedsAssessment Competitive Analysis PersonaDevelop Requirements Development PrototypeDesign WorkflowDesign ConceptualDesign WireframeDesign Formative Evaluation MockupDesign Design MockDesign MockDesign Summative Evaluation Evaluation

3. Gabriel Spitz Effective User Interface • Is an interface that matches user characteristics • Enables the user to perform his or her task effectively and efficiently • Thus achieving her/his intentions/goals • Is suitable for use in its intended environment

4. Gabriel Spitz A Design Catering to Conservative Attitudes When It Comes To Money

5. Gabriel Spitz A Design Catering to Fun Loving Teenagers

6. Gabriel Spitz A Design Catering to subdued attitudes of seniors – Colorful, but quiet

7. Gabriel Spitz Our First Step in UI Design Identify and Describe Our User

8. Gabriel Spitz Users Are Everywhere

9. Gabriel Spitz The Challenge – Narrow Down Potential Users • To maximize the fit between our application and the users we need to design for a very clearly defined group of users • A design for everyone is often a design for no one

10. Gabriel Spitz Also: Identify Direct and Indirect Users Direct Users Indirect Users Nurse Patient e.g., Need to support large font

11. Gabriel Spitz Design that Ignores Secondary Users Should a patient sign this document too?

12. Gabriel Spitz Before and After Considering Secondary Users

13. Gabriel Spitz Our Goal – Identify Focal Groups All potential users Focal users

14. Gabriel Spitz Criteria for Selecting Focal Groups • Select 2-3 types of users or user roles to support based on: • Type and category of the application we build • Its business goals and objectives • Business Case

15. Gabriel Spitz Describing the User Persona – A Design Tool • Once the focal groups are identified, we need to describe the user • Description of the user in general terms such as All Students, Every Senior Person is not helpful • It does not help us make effective design decisions • To support effective design we need to have in mind real users and envision the way they will react to a feature or design decision in our UI • A good tool to help us is User Persona

16. Gabriel Spitz What is a Persona? • User Persona is an instantiation of a hypothetical user • It is a description of a typical user along with stories about how s/he might use an application to meet his/her goals • It is an archetype of the user which will help guide decisions about the product and its characteristics

17. Gabriel Spitz Example of a User Persona

18. Gabriel Spitz Example of User Persona the goal of persona is to bring the user to life and use it to design and communicate

19. Gabriel Spitz Use of Personas in Design • Examine a design feature in the context of our persona • Will this feature meet the goals of our persona • Is the feature important enough to our persona to justify the development costs • How should the feature be characterized to provide optimal usability for our persona

20. Gabriel Spitz Methods for Creating User Personas • Use ethnographic interviews with real people • Immersive observation and direct 1:1 interviews • Focus on what users know and capable of achieving • Gather indirect information from marketing, sales, and technical support people • They have a good understanding of who are the users and what capabilities they poses • Make sure their information is current

21. Gabriel Spitz Content of User Persona • User Persona includes in its description • Name • Role and job title • Description of relevant goals, motivations, pain points • Quotes and stories in the person language • Relevant demographic information • User characteristics • Description of primary activities

22. Gabriel Spitz Design Questions for a Persona • Persona should inform the designer about: • Specific knowledge they have of our application • E.g. Would the term “Enter” be meaningful to them • Domain knowledge • E.g. Credit vs. Debit • How often will they use our application • E.g. Once a month • Where will they be when using the application • E.g. Outside the bank • What expectations they have when using our application • E.g. Can take out unlimited amount of money • All of the above help us anticipate the characteristics of the application we need to consider

23. Gabriel Spitz Guidelines for Creating Persona • Focus on behavioral pattern, not job description • Keep persona set small • Focus on the user not the buyer (of the application) • Add life to persona • Use the right goals • Persona must be specific to the design problem • Kim Goodwin; http://www.uie.com/articles/perfecting_personas

24. Gabriel Spitz @ Focus on Behavioral Pattern Not Job Description • It is a narrative that describes the flow of someone’s day • It includes a description of their skills, attitude, and environment • It helps answer questions about job description, not specific tasks - e.g., are people multitasking, are there lots of interruptions • Sometimes for a given job we need several personas e.g., an experienced user and a novice one. This is because skill level here makes a big difference

25. Gabriel Spitz @ Keep Persona Set Small • The goal of persona is to provide context for decision • Too many personas will impose a memory load and reduce their effectiveness • Limit the number of personas to distinct behavioral patterns, not demographic • E.G., A manager and an employee will have different behavioral patterns when it comes to CRM, but probably not for email

26. Gabriel Spitz @ Focus on the User not the Buyer • Marketing people focus on people that bring in most money or a growing segment of the population • Design needs to focus on the people that will use the application, not those that will buy it • E.G., in commercial setting the buyer and therefore the target of Marketing is the executive. • The user is the technician

27. Gabriel Spitz @ Add Life to Persona • Focus on goals, behavior patterns, environment, and attitudes first • Than add a few personal details to reinforce the persona characteristics • Remember Persona is first a design tool

28. Gabriel Spitz @ Use the Right Goals • Each persona should include 3-4 goals • Goals are things users want to accomplish • tasks are the way to accomplish goals • Select goals that are related to or will help the design • Thus goals should be with respect of what an end user would like to get out using the tool – Outcome • E.G., Passengers do not want a boarding pass;They want to get home

29. Gabriel Spitz @ Make Persona Unique to a Design Problem • We can not use persona that was created for a different domain. • Within each domain personas will have different goals and different behavioral patterns

30. Gabriel Spitz Benefits of Using Personas • Help understand the users - who they are, what do they know about our tasks help design the product • Clarifies assumptions - use scenarios help team members share and formalize assumptions about users and usage • Fully explore the design - use scenarios help explore important aspects of the design • Provide context for reviewers - when trying to evaluate the design

31. Gabriel Spitz Example of Relevant User Information • Check In Kiosk • Users’goals – e.g. Get home fast • Users’ Characteristics – e.g. Limited language skills, forgetful (I don’t know my flight number), uptight, etc. • Usage environment– e.g. Standing vs. sitting, heavy bag on shoulder, infrequent use

32. Gabriel Spitz Value of Creating Persona • Allow us to find out what we do not know about our users • Limits the set of tasks and jobs that we need to analyze • Help specify the types of usability goals we should establish for the applications • Will impact UI design via the usability goals • Constrain and direct the selection of users types for usability evaluation

33. Gabriel Spitz In Summery - We Create Personas • Help us understand why our users are not us. • It is not for-us-by-us • Identify and prioritize features and functionality • Identify users for testing  • Understanding users is critical to getting value out of SW