An introduction to personas UCD Hoorcollege blok 1 week 6

Learning goals By the end of the colleges and reading you should: Understand what a persona is in UCD Know how the advantages of personas Be able to create a primary persona for a specific product or user problem Have created a persona based on user observation and interviews

Agenda What are personas? Why use personas? Creating personas Summary

What are personas?

Personas are fictional archetypes but based on research into real users

(In reality you create more than one persona)

Personas are archetypes not stereotypes A very typical example of a person or thing Source: Oxford English Dictionary Oervorm, oerbeeld => grondvorm Source: Van Dale Stereotype: A widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing Source: Oxford English Dictionary Vastliggend beeld, karakterisering Source: Van Dale

Definition of persona (for UCD) A persona is a fictional archetype created by organizations for use in the development of products (especially software and online products). Personas are based on ethnographic research into users and should not be “made-up” by UCD teams. The use of ethnographic research helps the creation of a number of archetype users that can be used to develop products that deliver positive user experiences. By feeding in real data, ethnographic research allows UCD teams to avoid generating stereotype users, that may bear no relation to the actual user’s reality. Source: Charlie Mulholland

Why use personas?

The problems of product development

The advantage of personas

Advantages of personas UCD teams carry-out research Allow checking the (filtered) information from other stakeholders Provide an alternative “grounding” point Encourage story-telling Allow role-playing Communication Internal within team External with other stakeholders Generate commitment

Risks You get it wrong in research Wrong user paradigm Poor interpretation of ethnographic research You do not obtain “buy-in” to your personas Within your team With other stakeholders Quality of research and believability are key here

Creating personas

Persona creation process

Goals and personas Understanding user goals are essential to developing products To be effective personas must have goals based on the real goals your interview subjects had Alan Cooper identifies 3 types of user goals (About Face 2.0) Life goals Experience goals End goals

Types of user goals Type of goal Examples Use in persona Life goal - The goals a user has for the life as a whole To succeed To enjoy life To have fulfilling relationships Behave ethically Little direct use However if a product can help achieve these goals it will be more interesting to the user - so keep them in mind Experience goals - How the user wants their experiences to be in general (and so with the product). This is their definition of a good experience Not feel stupid Not make mistakes Enjoy using the product Feel in charge These are very important as these define the user experience with the product They are usually similar to most people End goals - The goals that user want to achieve by using the product. To stay in contact with friends To know what your next appointment is To show off Very important If your product does not achieve these, then has failed The aim of a UCD process is to allow the user to achieve their end goals and have a good experience while doing this

Persona types If you have created a number of persona hypotheses and interviewed all of them, you will have more than one type of user This is exactly what you want to achieve Cooper identifies 6 persona types Primary user Secondary user Supplemental user Customer Served user Negative

Behaviours Behaviours (gedragen) are ways that people act when they use the product Examples of behaviours for a phone: What do they use if for? What functions do they use? Where do they keep their phone? Where do they use their phone? When do they use it? Do they use the help function / manuals or do they learn by trail and error? How comfortable are they using it? Do they get frustrated? Do they show it off? Etc…

Using behaviours Behaviours are based on the ways your research subjects Behaviours describe how a persona will react when they use the product to achieve their goals When we create scenarios we will use the behaviours to help us construct realistic stories Behaviours are essential to make a persona usable

Persona types Type Description Use Primary The main target user for the product. You develop your product for this persona and their goals There can only be one primary user persona for a product Secondary Other users who are mostly satisfied with the product, but have some additional requirements Allow you to “tweak” thing to account for special needs There should be no more than 2 secondary personas Supplemental Not primary or secondary users, happy with the main product Use to keep other stakeholders happy Customer The product customer (the buyer) Useful for keeping in mind the needs of other stakeholders Served Personas that do not use the product, but are served by the use of the product In certain situations the served persona can be useful (e.g. medical equipment) Negative Personas of the user who will not be considered in the product Closes discussion about “super users”

The blok assignment will focus on primary personas Type Description Use Primary The main target user for the product. You develop your product for this persona and their goals There can only be one primary user persona for a product Secondary Other users who are mostly satisfied with the product, but have some additional requirements Allow you to “tweak” thing to account for special needs There should be no more than 2 secondary personas Supplemental Not primary or secondary users, happy with the main product Use to keep other stakeholders happy Customer The product customer (the buyer) Useful for keeping in mind the needs of other stakeholders Served Personas that do not use the product, but are served by the use of the product In certain situations the served persona can be useful (e.g. medical equipment) Negative Personas of the user who will not be considered in the product Closes discussion about “super users”

Summary Personas are archetypes (not stereotypes) that are based on ethnographic research Personas are a powerful tool as they ensure research, aid communication and build commitment Personas must have experience and end goals The aim of UCD is to allow user end goals to be met while ensuring that their experience goals are not forgotten To be useful a persona must also have behaviours that reflect how your research subjects act when they use the product You develop different persona types, but you develop a product for the primary persona In the blok assignment you only need to develop a primary persona

Next week We will be looking at how to put personas into use via scenarios Please make sure your primary persona is finished