Personas & Low Fidelity Prototyping User-Centered Design Seminar April 24, 2008

© ThoughtWorks, 2006

Personas & Low Fidelity Prototyping

User-Centered Design SeminarApril 24, 2008

Calgary Chapter of the IIBA

John Johnston and Cristin Witcher

© ThoughtWorks, 2006

The Presenters

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John Johnston• MA in History

• COBOL programer

• Web developer

• 8 years analysis

• 3 years at TW

• Recent convert to UCD

Cristin Witcher• studied Leadership Studies in

university

• practicing User-Centered Design since 2001

• joined TW this past July

• actively noodling on the joint between Agile methods and UCD

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Agenda

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• Tell them what you’re going to tell them.

• Tell them.

– Designs we love, and designs we love to hate

– Personas and low-fi prototypes in action – a recent example

– The techniques explained – how to create personas and test out prototypes on your projects

• Tell them what you told them.

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The Good

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Designed here in Calgary?

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A prize to the one who can name those spoons…

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The Bad

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The bad

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Oh the irony…

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The ugly

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Go on, open the windows. We

dare you.

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The Ugly

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How to get in the right camp

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How do we make sure we land in the right camp?

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Find

Estimate

Compare

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Treatment Cost Calculator Personas

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Michael Murphy Nicole Tafoya ChristopherReynolds

James Lee PeggyHenderson

Ginger Wheeler

• College Graduate• Computer Savvy• Knee Injury• High Deductible• Cost Conscious• Researching Procedure Costs

• Comfortable User• 22 Weeks Pregnant• Concerned with Information Quality• Pricing Medications• Comparing Procedure Costs• Cost is one of Several Factors

• Accessing from Employer Portal• Not a Regular PC User• Planning for FSA• Estimating Annual Costs Associated with his Daughter’s Asthma

• Graduate Degree• Busy Professional• Migraine Headaches• Pricing Different Facilities for an MRI

• School Librarian• Early Stage Breast Cancer• Looking to make Best Possible Personal Health Decision

• Health Advocate• Helps Clients with Involved Medical / Benefits Profiles• Manages Hundreds of Cases• Currently Helping Patient Price Prescription Costs

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Michael Murphy27 Years Old | Chicago, IL | Single, No Children

• Mike graduated from college about five years ago and is now working as a tax accountant for a large firm in Chicago. He spends the majority of his day in front of a computer, typically using email and spreadsheet applications.

• Mike recently injured his knee playing basketball after work with some friends. He tried to ignore it for a few days, but the swelling has gotten bad and he is having a difficult time walking. Mike has not yet seen a doctor, but he is going to have to go to his family physician sooner rather than later. Mike grew up in the suburbs of Chicago and still has a doctor there that he’s been seeing since he was in high school.

• As a young, healthy guy Mike had no need to enroll in one of the more extensive healthcare plans offered by his employer. His premiums are low but his deductible is high, and has not yet been even close to satisfied.

• Mike wants to do some research to better understand his injury and what potential treatments are likely to cost. In his mind the worst case scenario would be knee surgery. He specifically wants an idea of the cost of surgery and subsequent physical therapy.

“

”

I never get sick, so I

didn’t choose great

insurance coverage from my

employer. I have a bad feeling that this knee is going to be expensive.

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Doing it yourself

These are techniques of user-centered design

Do it early on (then keep doing it)

Huge value in project scoping or inception

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Why Personas?

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remember the application is not for us

Personas help us…

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Why Personas?

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communicate with the team

Personas help us…

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Why Personas?

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design and test

Personas help us…

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But How?

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Identify behaviour patterns

not job descriptions

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But How?

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Identify scenarios(Persona + Goal +

Environment)

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But How?

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Start withreal data (if you can)

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Bring in your own observations…

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Visioning sessions

Stakehold

er

interviews

Contextual Inquiries

Personal assumptions

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And the greatest of these is

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Visioning sessions

Stakehold

er

interviews

Contextual Inquiries

Personal assumptions

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Personas

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“ Personas are actually the designer’s focused act of empathetic imagination, grounded in first-hand user knowledge. ”

Andrew Hintonboxesandarrows.com

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Personas

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Top Tips

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Keep your persona set small

Add life to the personas, but remember they're design tools first

Use the right goals (3 or 4 each)

Experience goals describe how the persona wants to feel when using a product.

Should be based on research where possible

Name / Photo Role Quotes Demographics Goals / Motivations Pain Points Primary Activities Design Imperatives

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Why Low-Fi Prototyping?

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Invite people into the design

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Why Low-Fi Prototyping?

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Experiment & iterate (on the cheap)

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Why Low-Fi Prototyping?

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communicate design ideas

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Why Low-Fi Prototyping?

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define application scope

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Why Low-Fi Prototyping?

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usability test early on

• Test anyone you can get

• You aren’t testing them

• Give them a goal

• Get them to think aloud

• One person is the computer

• One person facilitates

• One person observes

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What do you need?

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school supplies!

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What do you need?

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know your personas & goals

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And then…

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Host a design studio

Tack up a screen and start doodling

Get sketching / brainstorm

- do one design - then another - and a third!

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Low-Fi Prototypes

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Low-Fi Prototypes

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Low-Fi Prototypes

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Demo

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Demo

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DANGDANGER!ER!

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How the process worked…

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Too many assumptions, not enough certainties

Carry the personas

throughout the development lifecycle for consistency

Actuaries and developers like

to play with markers

It’s easier to make design

decisions in the absence of color

and graphics

It doesn’t cost anything to let the guy with

crazy ideas help with design

Higher-Fidelity works for

demos, maybe not design iterations

Usability testing reveals bad taxonomy

Just because it’s looking finished, doesn’t mean it

is

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Telling you what we told you…

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Principles of good design in the real word apply to software too

Users often != customers

Use Personas to help make your requirements gathering user-centered

Use Low-Fi prototypes to quickly generate ideas andfeedback

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Useful References

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Websites

• http://www.boxesandarrows.com/view/personas-and-the

• http://www.cooper.com/newsletters/2001_07/perfecting_your_personas.htm

• http://www.steptwo.com.au/papers/kmc_personas/

• http://www.guuui.com/browse.php?cid=128

• http://www.alistapart.com/

• http://designcomics.org/

Books

• Don’t Make Me Think Steve Krug

• The Persona Lifecycle : Keeping People in Mind Throughout Product Design John Pruitt and Tamara Adlin

• Sketching User Experiences: Getting the Design Right and the Right Design Bill Buxton

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Questions? Have at it…

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