On User Profiles

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On User Profiles
Personas help solve the design problem User
Profiles are not User Personas One is the
loneliest number of personas
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Personas help solve the Design Problem
Users
Goals
Tasks
Solutions
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Programmers are the inmates in this asylum

• Technology centered design
• Programmer Goals
• Run in a browser
• Safeguard data integrity
• Decrease memory and processor time
• Use cool technology
• Be feature rich
• Cross platform consistency
• These are inconsistent with user goals!

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Computers are Rude!

• Humans react to computers as if they were humans
• Computers are servants
• Computers should be polite,
• like a servant

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Enforcing Politeness

• Computers should be
• Interested in the user
• Forthcoming
• Attentive and responsive
• Taciturn about its personal problems
• Confident

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Personas help solve the Design Problem
Users
Goals
Tasks
Savvy Programmer
How can we make the software help accomplish
these tasks better, faster, easier?
Solutions
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Personas help solve the Design Problem
Users
Savvy Designer
Goals
How can we make software that helps meet the
users goals?
Tasks
X
Solutions
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Goal-Directed Design (Cooper, 2004)

• Goals are the reason why we perform tasks
• Goals are stable, tasks change over time
• Example Tommy wants to learn about UXD
• Goals
• Find out what books have been written
• Find the best book for the lowest price
• Select and purchase a book

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Goal-Directed Design (Cooper, 2004)

• Types of User Goals
• End Goals expectation of tangible outcomes
• Find the best price
• Have a easy to read version of document
• Process the customers order
• Solve a mathematical problem
• Experience Goals unconscious, implicit,
  automatic
• Avoid feeling stupid
• Avoid making mistakes
• Feel competent and confident
• Have fun
• Life Goals motivations, aspirations
• Be the best at what I do
• Get onto the fast track and win a promotion
• Learn all that there is to learn about a field
• Be ethical, modest and trustworthy

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What is a Persona?

• Sony In-Flight Entertainment System P_at_ssport
• Chuck Burgermeister, business traveler. A
  100,000-mile-club member who fly somewhere
  practically every week. Chucks vast experience
  with flying means that he has little tolerance
  for complex, time-consuming interfaces, or
  interfaces that condescended to novices.
• Ethan Scott, 9-year-old boy. He is traveling
  unescorted for the first time. He wants to play
  games, games and more games.
• Clevis McCloud, crotchety 70 year old man. An
  aging but still spry Texan, slightly embarrassed
  about the touch of arthritis in his hands. He
  doesnt own a computer or know how to use one.

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What is a Persona?

• Def A precise description of the user and their
  goals
• Hypothetical
• Archetypes the kernel of commonality
• Not the average user
• Favor precision over accuracy

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Specificity killed the Elastic User
Deloise Mahan is a 31 year old, 3rd grade teacher
at Jordansberg Elementary. She is happily married
to Peter Mahan, a newspaper editor, and has a 6
year old son named Stewie. On the weekend she
enjoys horseback riding around the country side
of Kentucky and having friends over for BBQs. She
enjoys taking pictures to document her fun
weekends.
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Discovering Personas

• User Interviews User goals
• Current, past and potential users
• Problems with the product
• How does the product fit into the users
  lifestyle or workflow
• What are the users current tasks
• Motivations and expectations concerning use of
  the product
• User Observation Ethnographic study
• What does the user consider as the products
  function?
• What is the context of the use? Where, when how
  often?
• Who is the user? What are they like?
• What are the goals and priorities of the user?
• What are the current tasks of the user?
• How does the user use the product?
• What are the users preferences?

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User Profiles are not Personas

• A Profile is a descriptive resource
• Demographics age, gender, income, culture
• Technological computer and internet
  experience, equipment
• Psychographic values and attitudes
• Roles jobs, training, power, social
  interactions
• Goals motivations, needs, problems
• Needs functional, emotional
• Desires stated, unstated
• Knowledge domain, product, market
• Usage frequency, loyalty
• Tasks order, duration, important, method
• A Persona is a design tool
• A synthesis of important user characteristics,
  goals, needs, desires, knowledge, and skills

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One is the loneliest number

• How do we boil down all of the data collected
  from users?
• User Profiles
• Post-It Note Clustering Technique using
  entire development team
• User Personas
• Design for one persona the primary persona

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Persona Non Grata

• Communicate with stakeholders, developers,
  designers
• Builds consensus and commitment to designing for
  users
• Measure the effectiveness of a design
• Contributes to marketing and sales plans

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What to remember about Personas
Personas help solve the design problem User
Profiles are not User Personas One is the
loneliest number of personas