Perfecting the Persona

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UX Design Techniques: Creating Personas:

  • Personas - Imaginary, yet detailed & realistic descriptions of the users of your product.
    • Provide a basis for design discussion
    • Describes who they are building for
    • Focuses on specific attributes of actual users
    • Involves on the team
  • Highly representative of target users
  • Provide focus
  • Streamlined, consistent design
  • Defined target means better overall product
*Design for key individuals
*Build for many customers

  • Personas are created from site visit data - they are essential for:
    • Ideation
    • Scenario Creation
    • Prototype Development
*Create personas early in the development process
*Best time = right after analyzing data from your site.


Benefits
  • Common vocabulary for describing "users"
  • Helps everyone be on the same page
  • Aids in decision making
  • Provides focus - makes sure interface behaves consistently 
    • Experienced <----> Novice
    • Young <----> Old
    • "The user" becomes concrete
    • Helps to create a consistent interface

Assumption Personas
  • Use the data you already have
  • Make assumptions where necessary 
  • Check your assumptions later as you collect more data

Market Segmentation
  • Customer types grouped by purchasing type
  • Describe general traits in aggregate 
Personas
  • Individuals who have key user characteristics
  • Describe individual needs in detail
  • Making personas is best done as a team so every team member feels like they've contributed & buys into final personas
    • Attributes --> group into sticky  notes
    • Qualities
      • EX: SAMMY THE SALES SUPERHERO
        • Attributes:
          • 27 years old
          • In sales since age 19
          • Loves flashy gadgets
        • Goals:
          • Stay number 1
          • Keep customers loyal
          • Exceed quarterly sales goal
        • Concerns:
          • High pressure work
          • Wants to sound smart
          • Wants to drive conversation his way
        • Quotes:
          • "It's all about making the sale. Nothing should get in my way."
          • "It's all about setting high goals and then smashing them."
  • **Do this for several sticky note clusters and then combine them!**

Reference Your Personas in Order to:
  • Streamline conversations
  • Prioritize features
  • Remove personal opinions - "Our primary persona needs"
  • Describe your target audience
  • Recruit for usability studies
  • If you're building software for the same users over a period of time, = Data - Based Personas
    • Data-Based Personas - Every statement on persona descriptions = backed up by data points --> Makes them more believable and defensible

Data Sources From Your Company
  • Field visits
  • Market research (helps flush out personas)
  • Marketing segmentation studies
  • Metrics, log files
  • Helpdesk calls
  • Sales team data

Third Party Data
  • Thing tanks, trade groups & NGOS
    • Pew, International Monetary Fund, Stats.org, Pollingreport.com, & Yougov.com = all produce original research for FREE! 
  • Commercial Research Companies
    • Forrester, Gartner, Gallup, Comscore, Quantcast, Nielson ratings
  • User Experience Companies
    • Nielson Norman Group, UIE, (Blog posts / press releases)
  • Government Agencies
    • US Census Bureau, CIA World Factbook, Centers for Disease Contrail Vital Stats, Fedstats.gov, Data.un.org
*Best ways to use = with a question in mind*
  • EX: "We saw two users having problems with passwords - how many failures do we get each month?"
    • Site metrics, server log
    • Help desk
  • "How likely is it they'd use an online backup system?"
    • Industry reports, NGO Whitepapers
*Add new data as you find it!*
1. Attributes
2. Goals
3. Scenarios of use
4. Background Information
**DON'T SHARE WITH ANYONE!**
   *Good book: The Essential Persona Lifecycle - Tamara Adlin & John Pruitt

These were my first attempt at creating a persona for myself and one for an outside source, however many of us soon realized that we did not apply the information included in them to the information in our applications.




After doing more research and putting myself in the mindset of a coffee-loving college student who depends on her Dunkin' Donuts to get all of her work done on a daily basis. I then put myself in the mindset of a mother of four who is constantly on the go between her kids' soccer and piano lessons looking for a quick, easy bite to eat. I also chose a much more fitting color scheme, Dunkin's "Pinky" and "Creamsicle."
 


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