What Chuck, Cynthia and Bob Can Do for You:

What Chuck, Cynthia and Bob Can Do for You:

A Critical Analysis on the Use of

Personas in Usability Design

What Chuck, Cynthia and Bob Can Do for You:

A Critical Analysis on the Use of

Personas in Usability Design

Kerry MacDonaldComm 597

November 24, 2003

PersonasPersonas

Personas are hypothetical archetypes that drive the development process of user interface design.

Personas are behavior-based models that are created through observations and interviews of actual users/customers.

They are not real people, nor do they represent the “average” user.

PersonasPersonas

They use narrative descriptions, personal details and behaviors to define goals and needs.

Interfaces are designed to satisfy the needs and goals of the personas.

Personas “enhance the engagement and reality,” creating an “infrastructure for engagement.”*

*Grudin & Pruiit, 2002.

PersonasPersonas

Chuck, Cynthia and Bob were the first goal-oriented personas developed by Alan Cooper.

Although Alan Cooper and his team lead the current persona process development, the concepts have been used for more than ten years.

Personas are similar to (and born from) scenario-based design.

Personas vs. ScenariosPersonas vs. Scenarios

Scenario-based design has been around a lot longer than personas.

Scenarios help focus on users and tasks.

While they can have goals and needs, they do not focus on the user.

Scenarios are an effective tool, but “they are not engaging.”


Personas vs. ScenariosPersonas vs. Scenarios

Personas are engaging and memorable.

Personas don’t replace scenarios, but “create a foundation on which to build scenarios.”


Personas in UI DesignPersonas in UI Design

FORRESTER RESEARCH:*

Found in a study of 20 website owners undergoing major site redesign that the redesign goals were vague and lacked measurable goals.

The research concluded that “measurable user-experience goals are critical to online success.”

*www.infotoday.com/online/jul03/head.shtml.

The Persona ProcessThe Persona Process

Persona development is a relatively new technique, and there are no definitive rules to developing them.

Personas are developed through ethnographic interviews that are exploratory in nature.

The interviewer uses details to define broad and narrow goals of the users.


The Persona ProcessThe Persona Process

Patterns emerge and users are grouped by their similar needs, goals and behaviors.


Defining PersonasDefining Personas

ESSENTIAL DETAILs:*

Name

Age

Photo

Family & home life information

Work environment (tools & work conditions)

Computer & web proficiency

*Cooper, 1999.

Defining PersonasDefining Personas

Pet peeves, technical frustrations

Attitudes

Motivations (end results)

Information-seeking habits & favorite resources

Personal & professional goals

Candid quotes

*Cooper, 1999.

Types of PersonasTypes of Personas

PRIMARY

Requires a unique interface to meet needs and goals.

Primary’s needs and goals are the main focus in the design/development process

SECONDARY

Does not require a unique interface, although their specific needs and goals are considered.

NEGATIVE

The non-user: defines needs that do not need to be met.

Example # 1 : BBCi Primary PersonaExample # 1 : BBCi Primary Persona

BACKGROUND 36-year-old,single mother.

Lives in Northampton.

Has an AOL account.

Not “wowed” by the web.

Occasionally searches for information on parenting, educational issues, entertainment, holiday planning, consumer issues.

Hectic schedule

Competes with boyfriend for limited time online.

“Web neophyte on the run”

MANDY DANIELS*


Persona Example #2*Persona Example #2*

http://www.iawiki.net/PersonaDesign

ExamplesExamples

BBC

http://www.bbc.co.uk/?ok

Macintosh

http://www.apple.com

Microsoft*

Research for the Office Suite redesign revealed that four out of five features requested by users already existed







http://www.apple.com/

PersonasPersonas

COMMON UI DESIGN ERRORS:

Letting the latest technology and gadgetry have too much influence on design decisions.

Designers wants and needs driving the design.

Focus on use of function rather than the user of the function.

UI is based on market research, marketing and sales data.

Impact of PersonasImpact of Personas

ANSWERS CRITICAL QUESTIONS THAT A TASK LIST CAN’T:*

EXAMPLES:

Which pieces of information are required at what points in the day?

Does the user focus on one thing at a time through completion, or are there interruptions?

Why are they using the product in the first place?

*Goodwin, 2001.


Facilitates communication between individuals and teams charged with developing UIs.

Personas can identify a wide range of direct and indirect goals, such as experience goals, end goals, life goals.

Addresses unreliability of direct user input.

“Users are experts on their own pain but generally not on how best to cure the disease.” –Kim Goodwin, Cooper Design


“Communication about personas should be multifaceted, multimodal, ongoing, and progressively unfolding.”*

Personas must be specific to the problem.

*Grudin & Pruitt, 2002.

Drawbacks to Using PersonasDrawbacks to Using Personas

Creating personas can be time-consuming and expensive.

Developing the right persona is challenging and difficult to validate during the process.

Costs of developing UI for the wrong persona are high.

Keeps users at arms-length (It is easier to not interact with the customer).

May not always be the best means to develop an interface (example:software vs. content).

PITFALLS:

Designers can get too caught up in the character details.

Personas created but never utilized as a tool.

Designers select irrelevant details to create the wrong persona.

“Persona mania” causes designers to abandon other user-centered processes.

Personas are reused for a variety of problems.(Example: behaviors related to content management are different to behaviors related to manipulating financial data (Goodwin,2002).

Drawbacks to Using PersonasDrawbacks to Using Personas

Alternative MethodologyAlternative Methodology

*http:www.rashmisinha.com/schmog/archives/000013.html

RASHMI SINHA

Researching persona development that is quantitative.

Feels interviews are not the appropriate way to retrieve data on representative users.

Uses “exploratory statistics” to identify goal and need patterns.

Wants to “reduce the method to its essence” as a quick way for designers to understand their users.

Cooper sees no evidence that accurate personas can be developed through quantitative data.

Alternative MethodologyAlternative Methodology


JARED SPOOL

Has issues with “inter-creator reliability:”Do multiple persona creators create the same persona from the same data? (Goodwin says YES.)

Doesn’t see the point of spending time developing fictional users when there are many real users out there from which to cull information.

Persona development can begin with market research in early stages of group development.

The persona is defined by a living person.

Designers can ask the living person questions.

ConclusionsConclusions

THERE IS NO “MAGIC TOOL.”

Personas are one of many tools that can be used by designers.

ADDITIONAL RESEARCH IS NEEDED TO:

Further validate the use of personas.

Develop more concrete methods of persona creation

Explore the various schools of development.


“We need research like this to help us understand how we validate and improve the techniques, allowing more people to be successful with them, which meets everyone’s goal of a world with better, less frustrating, more usable technology.”

-Jared Spool

What Chuck, Cynthia and Bob Can Do for You:

Documents

Transcript of What Chuck, Cynthia and Bob Can Do for You: