Post on 14-Sep-2014
description
Personas and Scenarios
What is a persona? !"A persona is a user archetype you can use to help guide decisions about product features, navigation, interactions, and even visual design." — Kim Goodwin
Personas and Scenarios
What is a persona? !"A persona encapsulates and explains the most critical behavioral data in a way that designers and stakeholders can understand, remember, and relate to. Unlike simple lists of findings or other types of models, personas use storytelling to engage the social and emotional aspects of our brains, which helps each team member either visualize the best product behavior or see why the recommended design is good." — also Kim Goodwin
Personas and Scenarios
What is a persona? !
Personas and Scenarios
What is a persona? !
Personas and Scenarios
What is a persona? !
Props
http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2013/06/28/ kim-goodwin-using-scenarios-to-design-intuitive-experiences/
Podcast transcript: http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2013/06/28/kim-goodwin-using-scenarios-to-design-intuitive-experiences/
Why personas?
Remember, you are not the user. The user might not be the user. !The "average" user doesn’t exist, and we can’t design for everyone. !The trick is designing for the right people. !(Pro tip: pewinternet.org is a great resource for learning about digital users.)
And why?
Personas can help us gain empathy and insight.
http://www.teachthought.com/learning/the-role-of-empathy-in-learning/
Example
Example
name
type/title
image
age
summary quotation
narrative that includes mental model, drive, concerns, frustrations, others relevant to
understanding the behavior pattern
Example
Personas
Everything in the persona’s descriptions tells you something important about her attitudes, goals, behaviors, plans.
Personas
Even fictitious details (based on composites from your research) help make this seem like a real person. With whom all team members and stakeholders want to be empathic.
Personas
What can they be used for? !— Defining and designing the product — Communicating with stake-holders about your audience — Building consensus and rallying a team around a goal —Marketing the product — Developing documentation — Even prioritizing bug fixes
Personas are NOT
What are personas NOT? It’s true, it can be confusing. !— NOT the "average user" — NOT a market segment — Not a role (in the sense of enterprise software development) !
Why do personas work?
They encourage us to relate to users in human ways. Without having to actually handle live humans during the design process.
Why do personas work?
They present collected data as people, not abstract ideas. !
Why do personas work?
Quick! Think of "wizard". !
Got it?
Why do personas work?
Was it… !
Why do personas work?
Was it… !
(grey or white, doesn’t really matter)
Why do personas work?
Was it… !
Why do personas work?
Was it… !
Why do personas work?
Was it… !
Why do personas work?
Would you react to these the same way? !Would you design for these the same way? !People engage with people in a special way. !
Why do personas work?
And don’t forget the storytelling. !"Good data, rigorous analysis, and compelling, human presentation are all essential to making personas work." — Kim Goodwin
Counterpoint
"[T]he more we use proxies to convey information, the more we are relying on all of the communicating parties having the same set of reference points. That’s why it’s so important in a design process that any type of information vessel be treated not as a static artifact, but as a material that we can work with to clarify interpretations and surface assumptions." — Dan Soltzberg (http:///www.portigal.com/blog/major-mccheese/) !A persona is not a category to market to. And don’t forget there are real users you need to serve.
Building Personas
"Creating personas involves identifying the critical behavior patterns and turning them into a set of useful characterizations… . It’s entirely possible that your initial impression of the pattern is correct, but in many cases the obvious pattern is based on demographics rather than behavior, or is otherwise missing some critical factor." — Kim Goodwin
Building Personas
REMEMBER: !— Find patterns — GOOB! Get Out Of the Building, do field work
Building Personas
See Kim’s book for a more rigorous, in-depth process (useful in large companies or projects)… !Let’s go with a more lightweight and rapid approach.
Building Personas
See Kim’s book for a more rigorous, in-depth process (useful in large companies or projects)… !Let’s go with a more lightweight and rapid approach.
Jeff Gothelf, @jboogie
Building Personas
Lightweight Personas !— A model of what we know today — Low investment— Easy to improve — (And as you can see, all you need is pen and paper.)
Building Personas
What info do we need? !— Name and sketch — Demographic info — Needs— How we address needs !
Building Personas
Group exercise: create two personas !— Name and sketch — Demographic info — Needs— How we address needs !— Each group will share one persona with the room !
Building Personas
What did you find? !!
Scenarios
Not the same as personas. !!
!!
Scenarios
Not the same as personas. !!
!!
User stories and roles are often narrow problem definitions. !!
!!
Why Scenarios?
User stories and roles can represent single needs, single emotions. !Your product or service shouldn’t. !Think of the user, facing the whole shebang.
Why Scenarios?
Building Scenarios
The end goal of buying a TV is WATCHING TV. !It’s not having the pleasure of buying a dang TV. !For all journeys: What starts it? What steps along the way?
Building Scenarios
DO !— Where — When — Why— How — How often— With whom— With what tools & information
FEEL !— About their tools and tasks as they stand
WANT !— To learn? — To accomplish? — To feel?
Building Scenarios
Step 1 Step 2 Step 3 Step 4
Do
Feel
Want
Building Scenarios
Note: !These are communication and generative tools. !They don’t prioritize issues. !Though they can help find common pain points. !Or even a business case.
Building Scenarios
Partner exercise (20 minutes): !1. Tell the story of a recent episode (~10m) !2. Outline the steps ("I need…" to "I’m happy") across the top !For each step: 1. Do: task flow, info shared, tools used, etc. 2. Feel: about that experience 3. Want: to learn, to accomplish, to feel
Building Scenarios
Step 1 Step 2 Step 3 Step 4
Do
Feel
Want
Sharing time
Building Scenarios
Scenarios are about what happens in the magic future, not the past (or the present). !(From an awesome Kim Goodwin workshop.)
Building Scenarios
Make a to-do list. !Each persona’s typical "journeys" (maybe 2-3). !They can be big or small journeys, but always from the start to the finish. !A person’s whole day may be one scenario, or constant task-switching.
Building Scenarios
Building Scenarios
Building Scenarios
What can you fix? !Reduce frustration? !Reduce anxiety? !Reduce the user’s workload: — cognitive — memory — motor !
Building Scenarios
What can you fix? !"What would a thoughtful human do?" — Goodwin
Building Scenarios
Let’s give it a shot.
Building Scenarios
Let’s share.
Use Cases
Building Scenarios
If you’ve worked with project requirements…
Next up:
Maps and flows
ddt@twoangstroms.com
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