Personas: getting to no

Kelley HowellUX Research Manager

Illustration adapted from Frankie B Washington @ www.frankiebwashington.com BS Personas borrowed from Jill Christ @ Lynda.com and Stephanie Carter at Bolt Peters

(bs) useless personas

• Lives: NYC, not far from Times Square• Job: runs a small business with his

father; plays bass for the Himalyans, usually at The New Amsterdam

• Marital Status: actively looking for a life partner; prefers dark-haired Flamenco dancers

• Goal: wants to be a big (big) star • Believes: being famous will cure what

ails him• Anxieties: wishes he were a little

more funky

Marty Jones

“When I look at the television, I want to see me staring right back at me”

personas: a history

• 1975 – Alan Cooper• 1983 – Plan*It, Super-

Project, and “Kathy”

creative non-fiction as design tool

• While compiling code, he organized his design thoughts

• Talked to himself about his user, ‘Kathy’ • Tool for thinking through design problems• Used to prioritize features based on frequency

of use • Today we use user story mapping

• engineers: if we build it to do everything, we will make everyone happy and win

• “user” becomes an abstraction that’s stretched to meet needs of the technology

• Bring people back in with goal-directed personas

• Get rid of the useless bs

from technology-driven users to goal-directed personas

personas as SW design tool

• Ground design decisions in the activities and goals of archetypal users

• SW is not an abstract bundle of features • SW is a tool for people to accomplish their goals• personas as common language for

communicating across teams: management, marketing, engineering, product, design, sales, etc.

Personas

Must say NO to features

They are also:• Empirical, based on evidence• Defined in terms of goals, actions• Speak to the bigger context (see Kathy Sierra)

Next up

• User Story Mapping• Mapping Workshop