hogeschool van amsterdam interactieve media an introduction to personas ucd hoorcollege blok 1 week...

Hogeschool van Amsterdam Interactieve Media

An introduction to personas

UCD Hoorcollege blok 1 week 6


Learning goals

By the end of the colleges and reading you should: Understand what a persona is in UCD Know how the advantages of personas Be able to create a primary persona for a specific product

or user problem Have created a persona based on user observation and

interviews


Agenda

What are personas?

Why use personas?

Creating personas

Summary


What are personas?


Personas are fictional archetypes but based on research into real users


(In reality you create more than one persona)


Personas are archetypes not stereotypes

Archetype:

A very typical example of a person or thing

Source: Oxford English Dictionary

Oervorm, oerbeeld => grondvorm

Source: Van Dale

Stereotype:

A widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing

Source: Oxford English Dictionary

Vastliggend beeld, karakterisering

Source: Van Dale


Definition of persona (for UCD)

A persona is a fictional archetype created by organizations for use in the development of products (especially software and online products).

Personas are based on ethnographic research into users and should not be “made-up” by UCD teams. The use of ethnographic research helps the creation of a number of archetype users that can be used to develop products that deliver positive user experiences. By feeding in real data, ethnographic research allows UCD teams to avoid generating stereotype users, that may bear no relation to the actual user’s reality.

Source: Charlie Mulholland


Why use personas?


The problems of product development


The advantage of personas


Advantages of personas

UCD teams carry-out research

Allow checking the (filtered) information from other stakeholders

Provide an alternative “grounding” point

Encourage story-telling

Allow role-playing

Communication Internal within team External with other stakeholders

Generate commitment


Risks

You get it wrong in research Wrong user paradigm Poor interpretation of ethnographic research

You do not obtain “buy-in” to your personas Within your team With other stakeholders

Quality of research and believability are key here


Creating personas


Persona creation process


Goals and personas

Understanding user goals are essential to developing products

To be effective personas must have goals based on the real goals your interview subjects had

Alan Cooper identifies 3 types of user goals (About Face 2.0) Life goals Experience goals End goals


Types of user goalsType of goal Examples Use in persona

Life goal -

The goals a user has for the life as a whole

To succeed To enjoy life To have fulfilling

relationships Behave ethically

Little direct use However if a product can

help achieve these goals it will be more interesting to the user - so keep them in mind

Experience goals -

How the user wants their experiences to be in general (and so with the product). This is their definition of a good experience

Not feel stupid Not make mistakes Enjoy using the product Feel in charge

These are very important as these define the user experience with the product

They are usually similar to most people

End goals -

The goals that user want to achieve by using the product.

To stay in contact with friends

To know what your next appointment is

To show off

Very important If your product does not

achieve these, then has failed

The aim of a UCD process is to allow the user to achieve their end goals and have a good experience while doing this


Persona types

If you have created a number of persona hypotheses and interviewed all of them, you will have more than one type of user This is exactly what you want to achieve

Cooper identifies 6 persona types Primary user Secondary user Supplemental user Customer Served user Negative


Behaviours

Behaviours (gedragen) are ways that people act when they use the product

Examples of behaviours for a phone: What do they use if for?

What functions do they use? Where do they keep their phone?

Where do they use their phone? When do they use it? Do they use the help function / manuals or do they learn by trail

and error? How comfortable are they using it? Do they get frustrated? Do they show it off? Etc…


Using behaviours

Behaviours are based on the ways your research subjects

Behaviours describe how a persona will react when they use the product to achieve their goals

When we create scenarios we will use the behaviours to help us construct realistic stories

Behaviours are essential to make a persona usable


Persona types

Type Description Use

Primary The main target user for the product. You develop your product for this persona and their goals

There can only be one primary user persona for a product

Secondary Other users who are mostly satisfied with the product, but have some additional requirements

Allow you to “tweak” thing to account for special needs

There should be no more than 2 secondary personas

Supplemental Not primary or secondary users, happy with the main product

Use to keep other stakeholders happy

Customer The product customer (the buyer) Useful for keeping in mind the needs of other stakeholders

Served Personas that do not use the product, but are served by the use of the product

In certain situations the served persona can be useful (e.g. medical equipment)

Negative Personas of the user who will not be considered in the product

Closes discussion about “super users”


The blok assignment will focus on primary personasType Description Use

Primary The main target user for the product.

You develop your product for this persona and their goals

There can only be one primary user persona for a product

Secondary Other users who are mostly satisfied with the product, but have some additional requirements

Allow you to “tweak” thing to account for special needs

There should be no more than 2 secondary personas

Supplemental Not primary or secondary users, happy with the main product

Use to keep other stakeholders happy

Customer The product customer (the buyer) Useful for keeping in mind the needs of other stakeholders

Served Personas that do not use the product, but are served by the use of the product

In certain situations the served persona can be useful (e.g. medical equipment)

Negative Personas of the user who will not be considered in the product

Closes discussion about “super users”


Summary

Personas are archetypes (not stereotypes) that are based on ethnographic research

Personas are a powerful tool as they ensure research, aid communication and build commitment

Personas must have experience and end goals The aim of UCD is to allow user end goals to be met while

ensuring that their experience goals are not forgotten

To be useful a persona must also have behaviours that reflect how your research subjects act when they use the product

You develop different persona types, but you develop a product for the primary persona

In the blok assignment you only need to develop a primary persona


Next week

We will be looking at how to put personas into use via scenarios Please make sure your primary persona is finished

hogeschool van amsterdam interactieve media an introduction to personas ucd hoorcollege blok 1 week...

Documents

persona slide

van dale slide

use personas

user negative slide

personas summary slide

type of user

commitment slide

user observation