University of Washington HCDE 418 Personas HCDE 418 Credit: Cynthia Putnam, HCDE Ph.D. Student

University of Washington HCDE 418 Agenda  Announcements  5 minutes  Lecture - Personas  15 minutes  Guest Speaker – Ian Cooley, Experience Designer, SMITH  ~50 min  Break  10 minutes  Sketching Critiques  20 minutes  Debrief & Next Class  5 minutes

University of Washington HCDE 418 Announcements  Your questions, comments, issues, appreciations? Upcoming work  Read: Buxton, pp (for Monday)  Read: Buxton, pp (for Wednesday)  A1: Look, Learn, Ask, Try  Due Today at 5:00 PM  1.5 Discussion board posts – Lookin’ good!  P2: Contextual Inquiry & 2 Other Methods  Due Monday at 5:00 PM

University of Washington HCDE 418 Announcements  Posting questions for guest speakers on GoPost  By 3:00 PM the day before class!  Does not count as your 2 posts per week!  Due dates revised – nothing moved closer!  Check Schedule pageSchedule  Lab fee  Prototyping lab + supplies, computer lap + programs

University of Washington HCDE 418 Lecture 15 minutes

University of Washington HCDE 418

Personas – Overview  “Personas” as genre vs. “a” persona  Personas are archetypal characters  Personas describe user goals  Claims about personas. They:  generate empathy  help focus  support communication  avoid stereotypes

University of Washington HCDE 418 What is a persona?  A persona is a archetypal character that is meant to represent a group of users in a role who share common goals, attitudes and behaviors when interacting with a particular product or service  (Mulder & Yaar, 2007; Cooper & Reimann, 2003; Pruitt & Aldin, 2006).

University of Washington HCDE 418 Marketing profiles vs. design personas  Marketing profiles are about identifying the consumer  Often start with demographics  Design personas are about identifying the user  Ideally start with the (life) goals the user has for the product  Both are ways to segment an audience

University of Washington HCDE 418 User Goals Personas should each have three to four goals 1.Life goals, or personal aspirations. Ex: Wanting to retire before the age of 50 2.Experience goals describe how the user wants to feel while interacting with a product; they are personal and universal. Ex: Wanting to be competent while using the product 3.End goals, which are tangible outcomes the user has in mind when using the product. Ex: Have organized all his photos. Typically, experience and end goals are more helpful to design

University of Washington HCDE 418 Claims about Personas They generate empathy – We are engaged by fictional characters all the time in movies and books. They help focus – Constraints on the user population so that a design team can focus on a specific subset of users in specific situations while interacting with the to-be-designed product – Emancipates designers from problems that might arise when considering a full spectrum of users – Concentrate on the highest priority set of user goals and needs.

University of Washington HCDE 418 Claims....continued They support communication – Conduits for conveying a broad range of quantitative and qualitative data – Assumptions about users made explicit They avoid stereotypes – In the void of user research, designers have only their assumptions and intuitions guide their work. – “the whole point in creating personas is to get past our personal opinions and presuppositions.” Goodwin, 2002

University of Washington HCDE 418 Three basic steps to creating a persona 1.Collect data about users 2.Segment the users based on data 3.Create personas

University of Washington HCDE 418 The literature is in agreement that personas need to be created using data from real users No consensus on type Cooper prefers qualitative data based on interviews and observations of real users interacting with the product Mulder and Yaar (2007) believe that researchers should always avail themselves of quantitative data if possible (e.g., survey data), arguing the resulting personas are more aligned to real user data Step 1: Data

University of Washington HCDE 418 Step 1: Collect Data  Putnam used a combination of pre-existing data types for Krgyz Personas  Large scale survey  Design Ethnography  Provided inspiration for the proposed product  Created with a proposed product in mind  Mobile social software (MoSoSo) directory  Goal: provide accessible, reliable, and free information about phone numbers using social networks  E.g., Angie’s List, Amazon buying recommendations

University of Washington HCDE 418 Step 2: Segment the Users Based on Data 460 respondents owned used and owned mobile phones “What was your motivation to acquire your phone?” Three logical groupings based on motivations: 1.Replacement for home phone 2.Practical Desire to make outgoing calls, pricing 3.Social Desire to receive incoming calls and a need for a mobile phone because friends had them

University of Washington HCDE 418 Segmentation Groups Replacement group: – 45 (13%) individuals in the replacement motivation group – 84% of this group claimed to not have a phone at home Practical group: – 194 (55%) individuals in the practical motivation group. – 99% gave a need to make calls when away from home or work as the motivation Social group: – 113 (32%) individuals in the social motivation group. – 85%wanted people to reach them at all times

University of Washington HCDE 418 Attitudes  ANOVAs used to determine statistical significance

University of Washington HCDE 418 Mobile Phone Activities  Chi-square used to determine statistical significance

University of Washington HCDE 418 Phone Origination

University of Washington HCDE 418 Demographics

University of Washington HCDE 418 More Demographics

University of Washington HCDE 418 Other Technical Devices/Services

University of Washington HCDE 418 Step 3: Create the Persona Photo Name – first name starts with the first letter of the segmentation Quote that describes the user goals with the product Business goals – a priority rating and specific business objectives are also suggested Biographical profile and personal information that affects usage Computer, internet and other technology usage are common components

University of Washington HCDE 418 Presentation Types Paper-based mediums – Information sheets – Handouts – Posters Other types – Beer glasses – Action figures – Key chains

University of Washington HCDE 418 Step 3: Create the Persona  Parxat – Practical user  Shirin – Social user  Roza – Replacement user

University of Washington HCDE 418 Final Personas – Step 3 Presented as a single sheet – Used a photo that looked like a “real” person, e.g. not a model – Emphasized key differentiators – Included personal information as a bullet list – Included computer and Internet usage that would help define the technical abilities of each persona and illustrated significant behavior patterns – Included a prose personal profile – Outlined user goals for the product emphasizing end goals

University of Washington HCDE 418

Guest Speaker Ian Cooley Experience Designer, SMITH ~50 minutes

University of Washington HCDE 418 BREAK Class will resume in minute(s)

University of Washington HCDE 418 Sketching Critiques 20 minutes

University of Washington HCDE 418 Sketching Critiques  Count off by numbers  Take turns showing off your 3 sketches with each other  Each critic should offer advice and feedback about the idea  Sketcher: take notes about what feedback was offered  Critic: be critical, but constructive and courteous!  Each critic should sign the page after the sketches and date it with today’s date

University of Washington HCDE 418 Class Debrief  What did you learn?  Anything unclear?  Questions or clarifications?  Feedback?  General comments?