PersonasArchetype, not

Stereotype

What are

personas?

Personas can look like this...

To design for your users

you must first

define who your users are

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• A Persona is an artificial person, invented for the

purpose of helping a designer understand the

people who will be using their product.

• Pruitt and Adlin have traced their heritage to much

earlier. But to the modern design community, their

usage was popularized by Alan Cooper in 1998 in

his book "The Inmates Are Running the Asylum."

Where did the idea come from?

Why do we use personas?

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Different people have different needs

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A car for the “average” family

- average means nobody is really satisfied!

Personas also avoid designing

for the average user

Misconceptions

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What aren’t Personas?

•Stereotypes!!!They are the synthesis of user research findings.

They are not simply made up!

•Users aren’t elastic.

Making personasMaking personas

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Contextual research

Watch, listen and learn in

the user’s environment.

What do people do?

What do they say?

How do they work?

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When you can’t go into the field

This is what raw research findings look like:This is what raw research findings look like:

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� The clue is in the name!

� The data comes from client’s in-house knowledge.

� The good stuff comes from ‘looking’ at how your users interact with your website.

� Good to use when you have a rich set of data, such as Amazon, Play.com, etc.

Data driven personas

� Depends on how diverse your users’ behaviours really are.

� Typically we find that behaviour is less diverse that you might expect.

� Anything from 6 to 20 respondents is typical and useful.

� Sometimes do more for political reasons.

� Supplement with all your existing data: search logs, surveys, focus groups, customer facing staff

� Examples…

First choice 15 lab

BUPA 20 lab

Yell 16 field

DfES 59 field

How much research?

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WhatWhat’’s an effective way of communicating these back s an effective way of communicating these back

to your design team?to your design team?

How can you make them How can you make them ‘‘actionableactionable’’? ?

... and bring them to life for non... and bring them to life for non--research lovers?research lovers?

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Price driven Quality driven

Nervous user Confident user

Fact driven Feeling driven

Wilma is a middle aged bookkeeper from

Hatfield. She uses Sage and Excel on a

rather old computer at work, but has

internet access at home. She has an eye

for a bargain but is a stickler for details.

Personas and goals workshop

Persona consist of goal statements:

• Life goals e.g. “get the big promotion!”

vs “be an ethical person”

• Experience goals: e.g. “have fun” vs

“get it done quickly” (1-2)

• End goals: e.g. “find the cheapest

flights”

• Design challenges. E.g. Why this

persona is important to the business,

and what to bear in mind

• And a motto

• One sentence that sums up the

persona

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Personas come in two main flavours:

•

Primary persona – the primary persona is the singularly most important person for whom the site should be designed. The primary persona should always “emerge” from the set of secondary personas: it should not be created from scratch.

Secondary personas – typically between three and seven of these are generated from the ethnographic research first, before the primary persona.

With big systems (e.g. CMS), you can have lots of different user types, each of which you’d sum up as personas.

You can also have negative personas: people you want to specifically exclude

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Quick guide to personas

•Create a narrative – ideally, a one to two-page narrative

description for each persona

•Be specific – identify workflow and daily behavioural

patterns, using specific details, not generalities. Detail two

or three technical skills to give an idea of computer

competency

•Create mnemonic triggers – include one or two fictional

details about the persona's life, e.g. an interest or a habit

that make each persona unique and memorable

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•Use your imagination – don't use someone you actually

know as a persona. Try instead to create a composite

based on the qualitative data you have captured

•Strive for novelty – don't recycle a persona from a previous

project for a new project. Instead, do your ethnography

properly and create new personas for each project

Quick guide to personas

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•Keep the numbers low – keep the number of personas

created for a project relatively small. Usually between three

and seven secondary personas, depending on the interface

project, from which will emerge the primary persona

•Be realistic – strive to develop a believable archetype so

the design team will accept the persona

Quick guide to personas

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Making & using personas

Review existing

data and formulate

persona

hypothesis.

Recruit research

subjects based on

the persona

hypothesis.

Perform contextual

research.

Analyse existing

and new data

using collaborative

affinity sorting

techniques.

Establish

dimensions and

goals.

Create the

personas.

Workshop:

establish

dimensions, create

sketches, select

and flesh out

personas. Assign

goals.

Introduce the

personas to the

organisation, as

project style and

objectives require.

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Key things to consider:

•Fictional utility – personas are not "made up". They are an

output of data analysis

• Imaginary, not woolly – although personas are imaginary,

they are archetypes not caricatures, and should be defined

with precision.

•Realism – names and personal details for personas should

be created to put contextual flesh on the archetypal bones

•Goals – personas should in the first instance be

differentiated and identified by their goals

•Persona-centric design – interfaces should be designed

and built to very specifically satisfy the needs and goals of

the primary persona

A travel site

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Persona Case Study

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•After a user study, we

analysed participants

responses to get an overview.

- Age and Segment

- Type of trip

- Motivations

- Frustrations

- Behaviours and Attitudes

- End Goals when researching and

booking travel online

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•We mapped each

participant against key

behavioural axis:

- Planning in advance/Last minute

- Relax/Explore

- Attitude to risk

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We located patterns of

behaviour and found groups

of users that ‘stuck

together’…

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Book in advance

Book last minute

Quality

Price

Relax

Explore

Previous destination

New destination

Previous hotel

New hotel

1-2 trips a year

1-2 trips a month

Maximiser

Satisficer

Emotional

Practical

Main researcher

Sole decision

Travel alone

With friends

With family

With partner

Joint decision3 -6 trips a year

1-2 days

More than 2 weeks

2 weeks

3-4 days

1 week

Brand loyal

Google

Destination driven

Event driven

Relationship driven

Web fresh

Web savvy

intermediate

Trust reviews

Don’t trust .

intermediate

1,2,3,4

5,6,7,8

9,10,11,12,13,14

15,16,17,18,19,20

1,4,7,16,17,19,20

3,5,8,9,12,13,14,18

2,6,10,11,15

1,4,5,6,7,8,9,15,17,19

3,5,8,9,12,13,14,18

3,10,16

1,2,5,7,8,910,15,16,17,19,20,

3,4,6,11,1213,14,18

1,17,19,20

2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,1415,16,18

3,6,12

2,4,5,7,8,

3,10,16

3,4,5,6,9,11,13,14,15,16,18

1,2,7,8,10,1217,19,20

1,2,3,12,13,14,16,20

4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,1517,18,19

2,14

3,4,5,6,8,9,10,11,1213,15,16,18

3,10,16

7,8,10,17,19,20

4,5,6,9

3,12,13,14,16,18

1,2,11,15,

19,17,20

3

1,7,11,13,15,16,18

8,9,12

2,4,5,6,10,14

1,3,7,8,1012,13,15,17,19,20

2,4,5,6,9,14,16,18

3,10,14,15

2,4,5,6,89,11,12,13,16,18

1,7,17,19,20

8,14

2,12,13,15,`7

1,3,4,5,6,7,9,10,11,16,18,19,20

3,4,5,6,9,11,13,1415,18,20

2,8,10,12,16,19

1,7,17

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Book in

advance

Book last

minute

Quality

Price

Relax

Explore

Previous

destination

New destination

Previous hotel

New

hotel

1-2 trips a year

1-2 trips a

month

Maximiser

Satisficer

Emotional

Practical

Main researcher

Sole decision

Travel alone

With family

Joint decision3 -6 trips a

year

1-2 days

More than 2

weeks

2 weeks

1 week

Brand loyal

Google

Destination

driven

Event driven

Relationship

driven

Web fresh

Web savvy

intermediate

Trust reviews

Don’t trust

reviews .

Don’t look

for reviews

1,2,3,4

5,6,7,8

15,16,17,

18,19,20

1,4,7,16,

17,19,20

2,6,10,

11,15

1,4,5,6,7,

8,9,15,

17,19,20

3,5,8,9,12,

13,14,18

3,10,16

1,2,5,7,8,

910,15,16,

17,19,20

3,4,6,

11,1213,

14,18

1,17,

19,20

2,3,4,5,6,7,

8,9,10,11,

12,13,14

15,16,18

3,6,12

17,19,20

3,4,5,6,9,

11,13,14,

15,16,18

1,2,7,

8,10,12

17,19,20

1,2,3,

12,13,14,

16

4,5,6,7,8,9,

10,11,15

17,18,19,20

2,14

1,7,17,

20,19

7,8,10,

17,19,20

4,5,6,9

1,2,11,15,

19,17,20

3

1,7,11,13,

15,16,18

8,9,12

2,4,5,

6,10,14

1,3,7,8,10

12,13,15,

17,19,20

2,4,5,6,9,

14,16,18

3,10,14,15

1,7,17,

19,20

8,14

2,12,13,

15,`7

1,3,4,5,6,

7,9,10,

11,16,18,

19,20

3,4,5,6,9,

11,13,14

15,18,20

2,8,10,

12,16,19

1,7,17

With friends

With partner

9,10,11,

12,13,14

3,5,8,9,12,

13,14,18

1,2,4,5,7,8,

9,10,11,13,

14,15,16,18

3,4,5,6,8,

9,10,11,12

13,15,16,18

3,12,13,

14,16,18

2,4,5,6,8

9,11,12,

13,16,18

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Using personas

Prototype3

Specify4

Concept2

Contextual research1

1

2

3

4

5

Build and launch5

And they are useful throughout

the rest of the design* process!They are a fundamental

tool for innovation.

* Design is the whole thing,

not just the graphics

Personas are the first step to innovation

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Personas: Used as a communication tool

•It all about getting everyone to sing off the same song

sheet

•Focusing on users

•Reducing arguments

They enable decision making because you can ‘query’

them as if they were a ‘real’ person

•Standardised approach

•Common language

•They fill in the gaps between user-studies - you can’t have

users on-site all the time.

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Mood boards

Bed time reading

Bed time reading

Bed time reading

▪ Carroll, John M. Making Use: Scenario-Based Design of Human-Computer Interactions.

MIT Press, 2000. ISBN 0-262-03279-1

▪ Carroll, J.M. ed. Scenario-Based Design: Envisioning Work and Technology in System

Development. Wiley, 1995. ISBN 0-471-07659-7

▪ Chapman, C.N. & Milham, R. The personas' new clothes. Human Factors and Ergonomics

Society (HFES) 2006, San Francisco, CA. October 2006. [1]

▪ Cooper, Alan. The Inmates are Running the Asylum. SAMS, 1999. ISBN 0-672-31649-8

▪ Grudin, J. and Pruitt, J. Personas, participatory design and product development: an

infrastructure for engagement. Paper presented at Participatory Design Conference 2002,

Malmo, Sweden. June 2002.

▪ Pruitt, John & Adlin, Tamara. The Persona Lifecycle : Keeping People in Mind Throughout

Product Design. Morgan Kaufmann, 2006. ISBN 0-12-566251-3

▪ Rönkkö, K. An empirical study demonstrating how different design constraints, project

organization, and contexts limited the utility of personas. Hawaii International Conference

on System Sciences (HICSS) 2005, Waikoloa, HI. January 2005.

References

[Client: project, Date]