Personas:Breathing Life into Abstract Performance Data

Steven W. Villachica

Anthony W. Marker

Cheri Lockett Zubak

Boise State University

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Personas: Breathing Life into Abstract Performance Data

Steven W. Villachica Anthony W. Marker Cheri Lockett Zubak

Presented at the April 2015 Conference of the International Society for Performance Improvement - San Antonio, TX

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The Problem:Vague Performance Data

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Our Agenda

¨ Determine when to create personas¨ Create a persona¨ Use personas to make design decisions

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What is a persona?

A data-driven design

model (archetype)

that illustrates the

behaviors and

motivations of a

segment of a target

population who share

a performance

problem

¨ Fictionalized representation of a segment of the target population

¨ Make abstract data real and actionable

¨ Help performance improvement practitioners make smarter design decisions

Let’s meet some personas!

p. 1

6www.linkedin.com/in/workwrite

p. 7

7http://medialab.hva.nl/stiho/page/2/

p. 10

8p. 13

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Who uses personas? ¨ Customer experience

and user experience designers

¨ Information architects

¨ Software/database programmers

¨ Instructional designers

¨ Performance improvement practitioners

¨ Others

¨ Use “real” people, rather than text and numbers

¨ Improve shared understanding

¨ Explore job tasks, environmental factors, and motivations

¨ Ensure accuracy of performance requirements

¨ Guide prototyping

Why?

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When should you use personas?

¨ Understand the emotional content of an experience

¨ Manage solutions that could go awry

¨ Must drive decisions from data

¨ Communicate the target population

Common indicators

pp. 1 - 2

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To persona or not:That is the question!¨ The project has multiple,

diverse populations.

¨ Your team has done a lot of work to define and communicate the target population.

¨ Your team does not understand the target population.

¨ Leadership has a view of the customer that data doesn’t support.

¨ The company has invested a lot in the project. Things have to go right.

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Create a personaIt’s an iterative process!

Collect and review data

Identify segment of target

population

Draft persona (prototype)

Present/Critique persona

Use persona

p. 3

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Practice creating a personaRapid Prototyping via Quick Rounds¨ Round 1

– Read the RVMart case study– Identify a segment of the target population– Name your persona

¨ Round 2– Specify a goal and quote

¨ Round 3– Specify some persona characteristics

¨ Round 4– Specify crucial job tasks

Steal good ideas for your own personas!

pp. 4 - 6

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Use your persona to make design decisions¨ Personas and prototypes go arm in arm

¨ Personas can use design features in our performance improvement solutions

– Job aids/Tools --Other

– Training

¨ Good design features make our personas happy

¨ Personas and design features work together to clarify performance requirements

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Practice using a personaRapid Prototyping via Quick Rounds¨ Round 1

– Use RVMart info and your persona to determine 1 solution and 1 design feature

Example• Solution: Job aid to collect relevant information• Features: 1-page for both 5th wheels and

trailers

p. 14

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Practice, continued

¨ Round 2– Pitch how your persona uses the solution

and feature. Be prepared to justify your design choices.

¨ Round 3– Determine what you’d refine in your

persona, solution, and features– Determine additional data to collect

p. 14

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Transfer to the workplaceSummary¨ Determine when to use personas¨ Create a persona¨ Use personas to make design decisions

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Transfer to the workplaceBest persona practices

¨ You have limited artistic license. Base personas on relevant data.

¨ Refine your personas as you learn more about the target segment and the usefulness of the persona.

¨ Identify with good personas, but don’t fall in love with them.

¨ Remember that personas are a means to an end--better requirements, designs, and valued solutions.

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ReferencesAdlin, T., & Pruitt, J., (2010). The Essential Persona Lifecycle: Your Guide to Building and Using

Personas. Burlington, MA: Morgan Kaufmann. Available at http://catalog.boisestate.edu/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?LANGUAGE=English&DB=local&Search_Arg=Essential+Persona+Lifecycle%3A+Your+Guide+to+Building+and+Using+Personas&SL=none&Search_Code=GKEY^*&CNT=25&HIST=1

Boxes and arrows (2014). Special topic: personas. Available at: http://boxesandarrows.com/category/special-topic-personas/

Colbow, B. & Young, I. (2013). The power of personas. Available at http://uxmas.com/2013/the-power-of-personas

Cooper, A. (1999). The inmates are running the asylum. Indianapolis, IN: SAMS.

d.school. (2013). Bootcamp bootleg. Palo Alto, CA: Institute of Design at Stanford. Available at http://dschool.stanford.edu/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/METHODCARDS2010v6.pdf

Gara, T. (2013). Why one lady was mentioned 25 times on an earnings call. 30 August 2013. The Wall Street Journal. Available at: http://blogs.wsj.com/corporate-intelligence/2013/08/30/jennifer-oh-jenny-why-a-large-company-is-focused-on-one-lady/

Goodwin, K. (2008). Perfecting your personas. Cooper Journal, 15 May 2008. Available at: http://www.cooper.com/journal/2008/05/perfecting_your_personas

Goodwin, K. (2009). Designing for the digital age: How to create human-centered products and services. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley

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References, continuedMulder, S. (2007). The user is always right: A practical guide to creating and using personas for the

web. Berkeley, CA: New Riders.

Spool, J. Building Robust Personas in 30 Days or Less (webinar), November 2007. Available athttp://aycl.uie.com/virtual_seminars/building_personas_in_30_days_or_less

Warfel, T. A. (2008, April). Data Driven Personas. IA Summit, Miami, FL. Available at http://www.slideshare.net/toddwarfel/data-driven-personas-summit-08

Young, Indi. (2013). “The squabble over personas: It turns out there are enough for everyone.” Available at http://uxmas.com/2013/squabble-over-personas