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

1. 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.

2. 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

3. 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.

4. Taking the “You” Out of User: Application Development Using Personas What constitutes a Persona? • Name • Age • Job Title • Background • Goals • Photo Idea is to create a “virtual user” that can be kept in mind when making design decisions

5. 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

6. 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.

7. 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

8. 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

9. Taking the “You” Out of User: Application Development Using Personas More Information Resources Bringing Your Personas to Life in Real Life http://www.boxesandarrows.com/archives/bringing_your_personas_to_life_in_real_life.php Perfecting Your Personas http://www.cooper.com/newsletters/2001_07/perfecting_your_personas.htm Personas: Matching a Design to the Users' Goals http://www.uie.com/articles/personas/ An introduction to personas and how to create them http://steptwo.com.au/papers/kmc_personas/ Practical Persona Creation http://www.evolt.org/article/Practical_Persona_Creation/4090/56111/index.html