The third class of a 15 week course in Information Architecture taught at Parsons, the New School for Design. Topics include: Understanding Peoples Needs, Research tactics best suited for user understanding, How to use personas for consensus creation.

1. Class 3:
Understanding
Users
Instructor: Abby Covert

2. Last Class we...
2

3. Last Class we...
• Discussed Complexity
2

4. Last Class we...
• Discussed Complexity
• Learned how to use frameworks,
continuums and shared vocabulary to start
digging into complexity
2

5. Last Class we...
• Discussed Complexity
• Learned how to use frameworks,
continuums and shared vocabulary to start
digging into complexity
• Completed a group framestorm
2

6. Last Class we...
• Discussed Complexity
• Learned how to use frameworks,
continuums and shared vocabulary to start
digging into complexity
• Completed a group framestorm
• Decided on groups and areas of
complexity each will dig into this semester
2

7. Homework Share
3

8. Homework Share
• Each team will have 5 minutes to present
the way they designed their framework and
what they learned from doing this exercise
3

9. Homework Share
• Each team will have 5 minutes to present
the way they designed their framework and
what they learned from doing this exercise
• Each person on the team will be
responsible for calling out one thing they
did not know when they started this
process
3

10. I am an
information
architect
I intend to because I believe
make the unclear clear everything is complex
put the what architecture frames
before the how problems, design solves
them
facilitate understanding understanding is
organize meaning, always good but it is
create clarity and equally important to
establish truth not understand
support goals, makers clarity is a
and users prerequisite of truth
by: Abby Covert & Dan Klyn
4

11. I am an
information
architect
I intend to because I believe
make the unclear clear everything is complex
put the what architecture frames
before the how problems, design solves
them
facilitate understanding understanding is
organize meaning, always good but it is
create clarity and equally important to
establish truth not understand
support goals, makers clarity is a
and users prerequisite of truth
by: Abby Covert & Dan Klyn
4

12. What is a user?
5

13. To understand
USers
Start with
understanding people
6

14. People’s Needs are very basic
Self Actualization the motive to realize one's full potential
Esteem the positive or negative evaluation of the self
Belonging the Need to be an accepted member of a group
Safety being protected against failure, damage, error & accidents
Physiological mechanical, physical, and biochemical functions
Thanks Abe Maslow!
7

15. Because of basic needs, Users
Are individuals, acting similarly Self Actualization
Need to feel capable Esteem
Want to be part of things Belonging
Flee from Danger & Uncertainty Safety
Prefer the Easy Road Physiological
8

16. How To
understand USers
Get Up Close and
Personal
9

17. What do they consider: What makes them feel:
Appropriate? special?
frustrating? Social?
Dangerous? Connected?
Easy? capable?
Confident?
10

18. Ideas to get up close and personal
• Talk to potential users
• Talk to actual users
• Talk to competitive users
• Spend time shadowing users in their real lives (get permission,
please)
• Watch users using equivalent or similar things to what you are
making
• Use competitive things in the market
• Social media listening
• Blogs, customer reviews, forums… the internet is HUGE
11

19. What are you looking/listening for?
• Clues into their struggles
• Details of their context and circumstance
• Ways you hadn't thought of solving the problem at hand
• Reactions to ways you have thought of solving the problem
• Priorities within the problem space (what hurts most/most often)
• Details around timelines, processes, handoffs and collaborations
involved in the problem space
12

20. Pop Quiz
13

21. Here are some user Groups you are
targeting a food delivery app to
A) What do you know about these users?
B) What might you want to know?
C) How would you go about finding answers?
• Fast Food Eaters
• Single Moms with Teenage Kids
• Single Men 18-35
14

22. To
Assume
is to make an
ass of u and me
15

23. Highlight all the things you “know”
that are really assumptions
How would you confirm or deny
those assumptions?
16

24. Unlike people,
All Users are
not created
equally
17

25. Prioritization of users is essential
A) To assure that design decisions don't become
generic in the face of too many audiences
B) To allow for prioritization of research efforts
C) to Create another filter by which feature level
prioritization can occur
18

26. Introducing Personas:
Inventing people to
create consensus
amongst people
19

27. Why personas work:
• People like having someone to design for:
meaning there is already a persona or two living
in the head of every member of your team.
• Personas inspire teams to work towards a
shared vision instead of many disparate ones

28. Elements of a good persona
Needs
simply
stated
Ways to Clues into Clues into
compare Usage of Usage of
to other other things Channels
users and key
moments
21

29. Workshop:
How to prioritize
Personas
22

30. Persona Prioritization
Workshop
• Step 1: Quiet time, everyone make a post-it
for each user type you can think of
• Step 2: Group them into clusters by how they
might think about or interact in your problem
space
• Step 3: Pick 3-5 clusters of people that seem
like the ones most important to reach
23

31. Homework
• Provide a writeup of each persona type
you are choosing to focus on. In each
writeup, you must cover:
– What you feel you know today
– What you want to know
– How you could best find answers to your questions
(don’t worry about access restrictions, thing big for this part)
• Each team is responsible for turning in 3
to 5 write-ups by next class via email.
24

32. Questions?
CovertA@newschool.edu
@ Abby_The_IA
www.Abbytheia.com