A guide to our IxDA Northern NJ session on personas and their value. Personas are archetypal actors in the environment you are designing for. Based on chapter 11 in Kim Goodwin's book "Designing for the Digital Age".

1. Personas ala Cooper
Bruce Esrig and Adam Lerner
IxDA Northern NJ
13 Jan 2010

2. Session agenda
This overview presentation:
Why personas matter
Outline of Ch. 11 in Kim Goodwin’s
Designing for the Digital Age.
Slides and discussion about analyzing data
A scripted mock interview (with observation
guide) loosely based on the information
about Carla Ramirez

3. Feature Creep
How did that creepy feature get in this
product?
The technology can do it
It makes sense to do considering all the
other stuff that we already do
Somebody thought it would be good

4. Scenario Bloat
How did this system get so unwieldy?
It had a cousin that did something related
We decided to incorporate that
functionality in our own system
It was hard to figure out how to cram it in

5. Goal-directed design
You have a lot of features in mind
You have a lot of scenarios in mind
Who is going to use those features, in what
scenarios, and for what purpose?
Prioritize the features that are most critical
in the key scenarios to enable your primary
persona to meet its highest-priority goals
Starting with the personas and their goals ...

6. What Are Personas?
A persona is a representative, idealized
user
The definition of the persona is derived
from real data (research-based personas)
or from surrogate data (...)
In the data, it’s important to look for
information about the persona’s working
environment and activity flows; their goals
and frustrations; the skills and abilities
that determine their success in achieving
their goals; and the attitudes that
determine their responses

7. Where does Persona data come
from?
Try to meet actual users and observe them
doing what you want to support
If you use a surrogate, try to find sources
who actually deal with users and
customers: Customer support people and
product managers

8. Analyzing Research Data to Create
Personas
1. Divide interviewees by role if necessary
2. Identify behavioral and and demographic
variables for each role
3. Map interviewees to variables
4. Identify and explain potential patterns
5. Capture patterns and define goals

9. Analyzing Research Data to Create
Personas
6. Clarify distinctions and add detail
7. Fill in other persona types as needed
8. Group and prioritize personas
9. Develop narrative and other communication
tools

10. References
Kim Goodwin, Designing for the Digital Age, Wiley
2009.
Elizabeth Bacon and Steve Calde, Death to
Personas! Long Live Personas, http://
www.slideshare.net, July 2008
Todd Zaki Warfel, Data-driven Design Research
Personas, http://www.slideshare.net, 2007

11. Appendix: Observation guide
Goal of the series of interviews
Characterize car buyers: who are they and
what makes them do what they do?

12. Appendix: Observation guide
Listen for factors related to behavior:
Motivations and goals
Tasks, with their frequency and duration
Artifacts and information for tasks
Attitudes towards tasks and artifacts
Mental models

13. Appendix: Observation guide
Note information about the subject and their
environment:
As a consumer: Age, family structure,
geography
As a professional: Company size, industry,
geography
Physical characteristics and environment