symplicit ark persona presentation v2.1

© Symplicit Pty Ltd, 2002 - 08

Creating Personas: Designing for real people…

Jodie Moule, Principal Consultant

November, 2008


Jodie Moule

Symplicit~ Principal Consultant with Symplicit Symplicit offers product design and strategy services

Background and training Registered psychologist 10 years working in UCD consulting in Sydney and Melbourne

Professional focus and interests? Moving beyond usability alone and combining Psychology of human thought and

behaviour with web design …but always ensuring that we are designing ease of use!


Introduction…

What are we going to cover today?


General outline…

Why UCD is important

What are personas anyway?

How have others done it?

Things that will help you…

Quick questions and discussion!


Personas…

Why UCD is important?


A scene from a stakeholder meeting…

In our experience, feature X isn’t worth the

investment. Our customers don’t want it…

… but that’s not whatwe discussed in

the kick-off meeting…

Our contextual analysisrevealed that feature X was notpart of the users mental model

the ROI simply isn’t there

I still think customers would use feature X

… I’d use it!


Yes, but are all our users like you?

No, but I know whatmy customers want

and this is important!

But our users don’t need it. That is what

the analysis shows…

Forget everythingyou know about users – we need to be innovative!




Feature X stays in scope…

are we done?

?!@$%!@*#!


What went wrong here?

The Golden Rules of User-Centred Design:

1. Recognise that business results depend on making your users happy

2. Realise that you are not your users

3. Learn about your users by interacting with them

4. Make the findings of this research understandable and actionable

5. Make decisions based on this newfound user knowledge


Business results depend on users

If the user is satisfied, you will reap the rewards…

THE USER YOU

WEB SITE / PRODUCT

SPECIFIC GOAL

CONTENT OR FEATURE

BUSINESS RESULT

INCREASED REVENUE

PRODUCT INFORMATION; EASY CHECKOUT

FIND THE BEST XYZ PRODUCT

$$$


You are NOT your users…

Once your colleagues and stakeholders believe that satisfying users is critical…

The next step in their education is convincing them that the users aren’t like them.

…find someone with direct contact with users (customer service, call centre, sales) and they’ll be happy to point out surprising things that team members don’t know about their users…


You learn about your users through direct contact


Knowledge about your users must be actionable

It is important to have clear findings that are memorable and actionable…or they are dismissed

Personas put a face on user research

Turning data into the kind of knowledge that leads to better user experiences and better websites and products


Decisions should be based on user knowledge

Once you know your users and can share this knowledge in a way that is actionable…

It is significantly easier to design for them instead of designing for yourself

…There should be limited moments like this one!

?!@$%!@*#!


What are personas?

Introduction…


So what is a persona?

Personas are usually a way to assist others to understand the customer data you have experienced

A way to communicate understanding of user needs based on rich contextual data gathered

Bring users alive for those not involved in the data collection process.

…so who are personas really for then?


Personas…our stakeholders


Personas…


Personas…

Case Studies:

What we’ve done…


Persona Case Studies

Case Study 1:

Sensis, White Pages Online


Case Study 1: WPOL today


Case Study 1: WPOL personas embody research

In 2006 Sensis wanted to explore how the White Pages value proposition could be extended for end users and Sensis customers (advertisers)

The internal “Concept and Design” team set up and owned the qualitative exploration which focused on exploring usefulness (as opposed to usability) and possible initiatives to develop White Pages (in all its various forms)

The team created end user/customer personas to communicate insights. These were presented in a storyboard format.


Case Study 1: WPOL personas research context

The persona exploration was one step in the journey of WPOL from simply presenting content from the print directory online to becoming an interactive website

One of the significant benefits of the storyboard is that is conveys how the proposed expansion of the value proposition needed to happen in order to ensure user acceptance

It showed an incremental approach was needed and could take place to transition users from existing behaviours and usage which was familiar to a broader use.



Case Study 2:

Telstra, Mobile Music


Case Study 2: Telstra mobile music

Who was listening to music

How were they downloading, purchasing and storing it across devices

How this experience could be enhanced


Case Study 2: Integrated research & design


Case Study 2: Scenarios put personas to work

Typical scenarios stepped stakeholders through how different personas would accomplish common tasks via their mobile phone

The task was deceptively simple, that is: Find a track of interest, Purchase the track Download the song via their mobile phone, Then listen to the newly purchased track on your mobile

This was then used later in the development cycle to test prototype designs and validate them – not only for behavioural value fit – but overall usability and ease-of-use.


Case Study 2: Scenarios put personas to work


Case Study 2: Mobile platform drop-off points…


Case Study 2: Proposed purchase workflow…


Case Study 2: Telstra Mobile Music research outcomes

Extensive upfront research into user behaviours around ‘what does music mean’ to users revealed behavioural habits and values around purchase and download of music

These findings led to clear understanding of what workflows would and would not be most effective for users when purchasing tracks via mobile

The changes in the interface lead to a 29% increase in music downloads on top of what was already the most profitable music purchase channel (over web)



Case Study 3:

Telstra, Unified Communications


Case Study 3: Telstra Communication and Collaboration

Research project undertaken on behalf of Telstra

Understand how users are currently communicating and collaborating at work and home

What devices do they use to communicate and collaborate

The influences of role and nature of the organisation might have on the way they communicate and collaborate


Case Study 3: Telstra communication & collaboration


Case Study 3: Research outcomes

Intended for future product development – personas were general in nature and are to be evolved over time

Research provided product teams with a greater depth of understanding than the market segments alone offered

The research showed how and why certain products were useful or not (both competing and Telstra products)

Honed in on what issues companies currently faced that would then lead to a greater understanding of potential blockers for certain products that might be developed


Personas…business benefits

Personas, in practice, may look very different depending on the purpose for which they have been created and the organisation in which they will be used.

Personas provided value in the three case studies by: White Pages - assisting stakeholders to choose and prioritise what should and

should not be done when setting the future direction of this brand

Telstra Mobile Music - quickly harnessing research insights and linking these into the design effort. The focus was on how informed design could improve the user experience and flow-through to product revenue. Personas/scenarios were a vehicle

Telstra Communication and Collaboration – dispel assumptions and provide an understanding of a broad set of behaviours and putting forward high-level design and product implications for future products.


Session conclusion

Tools that will help you…


Personas…key concepts to remember

Personas – description of a typical customer, a composite drawn down from the actual data you have collected

User Scenario – a description of a particular task performed by a persona, told in a story as though it were actual observed behaviour

Goal – High level achievement a persona is working toward or strives to maintain

Values and behaviour – outlines the ‘how they will use’ element. Persuasive behavoural elements we can build upon that will lead to use and usage

Task – an identifiable piece of work for which the persona is responsible

Role – the primary jobs that the persona plays, the hats they wear, responsibilities that lead to an intent…


Personas…the basics checklist

Conduct user research!

Analyse your outputs

Identify the persona to be created

Identify goals, roles, tasks and emotions /

values for each persona

Write the persona

Write a user scenario – an extended task

description to explain different situations

Check your personas against your original research

And most important …evolve your personas over time!!


Personas…some light bedtime reading?

Recommended reading on Personas:

Cooper (2004) - The Inmates are Running the Asylum.

Pruitt and Adlin (2006) – The Persona Lifecycle.

Mulder and Yaar (2007) – The User is Always Right.

Beyer and Holtzblatt (1998) – Contextual Design.


Questions and discussion…

Tie-up and Summary:

Questions, discussion, thoughts and impressions…


For more information or help?

Jodie Moule, Principal Consultant

Ph: (03) 9670 3385

Mob: 0415 288 283

Symplicit Pty Ltd offices:

Level 1, Suite 103, 757 Bourke St, Docklands, Victoria.

Website: www.symplicit.com.au

symplicit ark persona presentation v2.1

Technology