Using personas to design better election web sites

@danachis

MatthewAttorney MarriedLoves his BlackberryHates emailReads NYTimes on iPadAddicted to Words With Friends

Find where to vote in the next election

EdithFollows Detroit Tigers Hates ESPN.com Loves face-to-face online

DennisBuilding contractor Cell phone is for calling home Very tuned in to current eventsSees no usefulness in FacebookRecently more absent-mindedDifficulty doing standard calculations

Jane1,000-acre farm Tweets soil chemical readings Tablet instrumented to aggregate data

Personas: Archetypal users‣ Composites of real users

‣ Function or task-based

You: designer & developerHow do you design for these people based on what you know?

Think about each of the people as you answer these questions:

What can we say about how persistent the person is?

How pro-active will this person be in solving problems?

How easily will this person become frustrated?

How tech savvy is this person?

How literate is this person in the domain?

Little data, lots of assumptions

JaneFarmer nerd

DennisFacebookwhat?

EdithESPN.com-hating Hangouts fan

MatthewBlackberry-loving St Paul attorney

How old are they?

54 83 28 60

How old are they? How educated are they?

How much money do they make?

These don’t matter.

If demographics don’t matter, what do you do?

Persona modeler

accounts for what the user brings to the design

is a framework for personas

helps teams evaluate the strength of their knowledge about users

• persistence with tech

• tolerance for risk & experimentation

• how patient, how easily frustrated

• tech savviness, expertise

• strength of tech vocabulary

• physical or cognitive abilities

Ask the right questions

•Attitudemotivation, emotion, risk tolerance, trust, persistence, optimism or pessimism

•Aptitudecurrent knowledge, ability to make inferences, expertise

•Ability physical and cognitive attributes

!

Persona modeler

Task + functionality

Find out where to voteNew to the area?

Dropping a vote-by-mail ballot? Early voting?

• Who is the most persistent when it comes to working with technology?

• Who is the most likely to experiment and create workarounds when something doesn’t work the way they expect?

• Who do you think will give up when they encounter frustrations out of impatience?

Ask the right questions

• Which one is the most tech savvy - expert? Which one strikes you as the least tech savvy?

• Which one is the most likely to call the office to help them get out of some tech pickle? Or who will call the office rather than using the web site?

• Who will have the most advanced tech vocabulary when they do call for support?

Ask the right questions

MatthewAttorney House in St Paul, marriedAssistant books reservations Loves his BlackberryHates emailReads NYTimes on iPadAddicted to Words With FriendsDoesn’t spend a lot of time on the Web Avid hiker and birderBad knees Needs Rx eyepiece for scope

!

Where does Matthew fit?

M

M

M

EdithAvid sports fanLives in Miami, votes in RochesterFollows Detroit Tigers Hates ESPN.com Loves face-to-face onlinePicked up Skype early, quickly Prefers Google Hangouts Dropped FaceTime - gestures were frustrating

!

Where does Edith fit?

E

E

E

DennisBuilding contractor in DuluthMarried to a nurseThey have 2 kids8-year-old cell phone Gets current events on the Web Sees no usefulness in FacebookTrouble sleeping, easily distractedIraq + Afganistan: Blunt Force Brain Trauma

!

Where does Dennis fit?

D

D

D

Jane1,000-acre farm in Dillworth12 different systems every dayTweets soil chemical readings Smartphone alerts from exchangesTablet instrumented to aggregate dataMinimized manual inputArthritic thumbsNeeds stronger progressive lenses

!

Where does Jane fit?

J

J

J

!

Persona modeling

M

M

M

E

E

E

D

D

D

J

JJ

How do design decisions change with these attributes?

Subtlety of affordances

Size of targets

Directness of the happy path

Feedback modalities

Labeling & trigger words

Amount of copy

Wording of instructions & messages

Subtlety of affordances

Size of targets

Directness of the happy path

Feedback modalities

Labeling & trigger words

Amount of copy

Wording of instructions & messages

1. Explain how to vote

2. Put instructions where voters need them

3. Help voters prevent making errors

4. Write short sentences

5. Use short, simple, everyday words

6. Use active voice

7. Write in the positive

8. Instructions with multiple steps should be numbered

9. Keep paragraphs short

10.Separate paragraphs with a space

Writing instructions voters understand

1. Explain how to vote

2. Put instructions where voters need them

3. Help voters prevent making errors

4. Write short sentences

5. Use short, simple, everyday words

6. Use active voice

7. Write in the positive

8. Instructions with multiple steps should be numbered

9. Keep paragraphs short

10.Separate paragraphs with a space

If you had this tool, what would you do next?

What would be different for your design?

• Designing for attitude, aptitude, & ability

• Accounting for what the user brings to the design

• Checking that personas cover the right things

Persona modeler

Persona modeler: fast way to visualize users by asking important questions

framework for talking about who users are

can tell which users might be missing

works with any amount of data

middle ground between demographics and research-based personas

Big ideas

Research commissioned by NIST

SOP and Usability and Civic Life Project

Research commissioned by NIST

Research commissioned by EAC

Field Guides series

Research partially funded by Kickstarter

Research partially funded by Kickstarter

Coming soon

Effective election department web sites

Delivering useful voter education

Effective design for vote-by-mail

Funding yet to be secured

Designing multi-language ballots

Funding yet to be secured

Field Guides To Ensuring Voter Intent

civicdesigning.org/fieldguides

dana@usabilityworks.net

www.usabilityworks.net 415.519.1148

@danachis

Dana Chisnell