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Allison Bloodworth, Senior User Interaction Designer, Educational Technology Services, University of California - Berkeley Rachel Hollowgrass, Kuali Student UX Lead, University of California - Berkeley May 7, 2008 Using Personas to Create User-centered Designs

Using Personas to Create User-centered Designs€¦ · What is user-centered design? •User-centered design is a product development methodology based on actual user needs, abilities

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Page 1: Using Personas to Create User-centered Designs€¦ · What is user-centered design? •User-centered design is a product development methodology based on actual user needs, abilities

Allison Bloodworth, Senior User Interaction Designer, Educational Technology Services, University of California - Berkeley

Rachel Hollowgrass, Kuali Student UX Lead, University of California - Berkeley

May 7, 2008

Using Personas to Create User-centered Designs

Page 2: Using Personas to Create User-centered Designs€¦ · What is user-centered design? •User-centered design is a product development methodology based on actual user needs, abilities

Agenda

• What is user-centered design?• What are personas?• Gathering data about users• Creating personas• Using personas in the design & development

process

Page 3: Using Personas to Create User-centered Designs€¦ · What is user-centered design? •User-centered design is a product development methodology based on actual user needs, abilities

What is user-centered design?

• User-centered design is a product developmentmethodology based on actual user needs, abilities andperceptions.

• User-centered design is used by UC Berkeley because itoffers the most effective path to useful and usableproducts.

• Personas put a human face on the amorphous “user”because they are based on actual user needs. They savetime by focusing development toward real cases andaway from unlikely “edge” cases.

Page 4: Using Personas to Create User-centered Designs€¦ · What is user-centered design? •User-centered design is a product development methodology based on actual user needs, abilities

What’s in it for me?

• Programmers benefit from personas and user-centered design bynot having to write code that is not needed by the target users.Who wants to make something that won't be used?

• Business analysts benefit from personas and user-centereddesign because the scope of goals and tasks is well-defined forthem. They don't have to imagine or invent.

Page 5: Using Personas to Create User-centered Designs€¦ · What is user-centered design? •User-centered design is a product development methodology based on actual user needs, abilities

User-centered design atBerkeley

• Focuses on understanding:– Who are the users?– What are their goals?

• Goals drive a person’s actions• Tasks are things a person does in order to

accomplish his goals– What are their pain points?– What are their motivations?

• To drive design

Page 6: Using Personas to Create User-centered Designs€¦ · What is user-centered design? •User-centered design is a product development methodology based on actual user needs, abilities

Why focus on goals vs.tasks/do user research/UCD?

• “The way people do things today is often merely theproduct of the obsolete systems and and organizationsthey are forced to interact with, and typically bear littleresemblance to the way they would like to do things, orthey way they would be most effective.”– About Face 3.0

• Just putting existing processes on-line often is not enoughto help users achieve their goals

Page 7: Using Personas to Create User-centered Designs€¦ · What is user-centered design? •User-centered design is a product development methodology based on actual user needs, abilities

User-centered design atBerkeley

User Research Modeling Requirements Definition UI Framework Definition UI Design Development Support

❁ User Research ❁ Modeling ❁ Requirements Definition ❁ UI Framework Definition ❁ UI Design ❁ Development Support

Page 8: Using Personas to Create User-centered Designs€¦ · What is user-centered design? •User-centered design is a product development methodology based on actual user needs, abilities

User-centered design atBerkeley

❁ User Research ❁ Modeling ❁ Requirements Definition ❁ UI Framework Definition ❁ UI Design ❁ Development Support

Page 9: Using Personas to Create User-centered Designs€¦ · What is user-centered design? •User-centered design is a product development methodology based on actual user needs, abilities

User-centered design atBerkeley (cont’d)

❁ User Research ❁ Modeling ❁ Requirements Definition ❁ UI Framework Definition ❁ UI Design ❁ Development Support

Page 10: Using Personas to Create User-centered Designs€¦ · What is user-centered design? •User-centered design is a product development methodology based on actual user needs, abilities

User Research

• Ethnography and empathic research– Observation & interviews

• Study users in their context• Centered on users goals and activities• Look for patterns

❁ User Research ❁ Modeling ❁ Requirements Definition ❁ UI Framework Definition ❁ UI Design ❁ Development Support

Page 11: Using Personas to Create User-centered Designs€¦ · What is user-centered design? •User-centered design is a product development methodology based on actual user needs, abilities

Modeling

• Make sense of research findings– Personas– Use Cases– Activity Diagrams

• Gain consensus early on…before any design happens• Shared language & vision

❁ User Research ❁ Modeling ❁ Requirements Definition ❁ UI Framework Definition ❁ UI Design ❁ Development Support

Page 12: Using Personas to Create User-centered Designs€¦ · What is user-centered design? •User-centered design is a product development methodology based on actual user needs, abilities

Requirements Definition

• Refined based on:– User needs– Business goals– Customer needs

• Scenarios

❁ User Research ❁ Modeling ❁ Requirements Definition ❁ UI Framework Definition ❁ UI Design ❁ Development Support

Page 13: Using Personas to Create User-centered Designs€¦ · What is user-centered design? •User-centered design is a product development methodology based on actual user needs, abilities

UI Framework Definition

• High level design– What pages do we have?– What panes need to exist within the pages and how do

they work together.– What design elements are included in each page, pane,

etc.• Holistic Design• Allows for iterating on the details

❁ User Research ❁ Modeling ❁ Requirements Definition ❁ UI Framework Definition ❁ UI Design ❁ Development Support

Page 14: Using Personas to Create User-centered Designs€¦ · What is user-centered design? •User-centered design is a product development methodology based on actual user needs, abilities

UI design

“Design is the conscious and intuitive effort to imposemeaningful order”

• Interaction design AND visual design– How does it behave?– What does it look like?– How does it make users feel?

• Wireframes and/or mock-ups

❁ User Research ❁ Modeling ❁ Requirements Definition ❁ UI Framework Definition ❁ UI Design ❁ Development Support

Page 15: Using Personas to Create User-centered Designs€¦ · What is user-centered design? •User-centered design is a product development methodology based on actual user needs, abilities

Development Support

• Constant communication– No throwing it over the wall

• Constant iterations as we learn more fromdevelopment

❁ User Research ❁ Modeling ❁ Requirements Definition ❁ UI Framework Definition ❁ UI Design ❁ Development Support

Page 16: Using Personas to Create User-centered Designs€¦ · What is user-centered design? •User-centered design is a product development methodology based on actual user needs, abilities

What are personas?

• Basic definition– “A persona is a user archetype you can use to help

guide decisions about product features, navigation,interactions, and even visual design.” - Kim Goodwin,Cooper

• User models– Models can consolidate complex information into an

(easy to remember) abstraction– Remembering & making sense of all the raw data would

be impossible

❁ User Research ❁ Modeling ❁ Requirements Definition ❁ UI Framework Definition ❁ UI Design ❁ Development Support

Page 17: Using Personas to Create User-centered Designs€¦ · What is user-centered design? •User-centered design is a product development methodology based on actual user needs, abilities

Source: Sakai

❁ User Research ❁ Modeling ❁ Requirements Definition ❁ UI Framework Definition ❁ UI Design ❁ Development Support

Persona: Sarah Windsor,Overwhelmed Faculty

Page 18: Using Personas to Create User-centered Designs€¦ · What is user-centered design? •User-centered design is a product development methodology based on actual user needs, abilities

What are personas?• Should:

– be based on user research– be based primarily on qualitative research– be focused on users’ goals– be based on common behavior patterns– be specific to your design context or problem– come to life, and seem like real people

• Should not:– be focused on stereotypes or generalizations– be an ‘average’ of observed behavior patterns– be based (at least solely) on user roles– be based only on information gathered from subject matter

experts, as they cannot represent end users

❁ User Research ❁ Modeling ❁ Requirements Definition ❁ UI Framework Definition ❁ UI Design ❁ Development Support

Page 19: Using Personas to Create User-centered Designs€¦ · What is user-centered design? •User-centered design is a product development methodology based on actual user needs, abilities

Why use personas?

• Focus• Empathy• Gaining consensus• Avoiding the elastic user

❁ User Research ❁ Modeling ❁ Requirements Definition ❁ UI Framework Definition ❁ UI Design ❁ Development Support

Page 20: Using Personas to Create User-centered Designs€¦ · What is user-centered design? •User-centered design is a product development methodology based on actual user needs, abilities

Why use personas?

• Focus– Designing for too many different types of users makes a

product too complex to truly satisfy any of them– Pleasing some users often conflicts with pleasing

others– Avoid focusing the design on edge cases

❁ User Research ❁ Modeling ❁ Requirements Definition ❁ UI Framework Definition ❁ UI Design ❁ Development Support

Page 21: Using Personas to Create User-centered Designs€¦ · What is user-centered design? •User-centered design is a product development methodology based on actual user needs, abilities

Why use personas?

• Empathy– People are wired to be attuned to other people– Helps put yourself in the users’ shoes

• Helps avoid self-referential design– Facilitates the use of role playing to:

• make design decisions• evaluate designs

❁ User Research ❁ Modeling ❁ Requirements Definition ❁ UI Framework Definition ❁ UI Design ❁ Development Support

Page 22: Using Personas to Create User-centered Designs€¦ · What is user-centered design? •User-centered design is a product development methodology based on actual user needs, abilities

Why use personas?

• Gaining consensus– Give the team a shared understanding (early on!) of

who they users are and what they need• Without personas, the team may be disagreeing about who

the users are, rather than actual design decisions, withouteven knowing it

– Gives the team a tool to reason through designdecisions

❁ User Research ❁ Modeling ❁ Requirements Definition ❁ UI Framework Definition ❁ UI Design ❁ Development Support

Page 23: Using Personas to Create User-centered Designs€¦ · What is user-centered design? •User-centered design is a product development methodology based on actual user needs, abilities

Why use personas?

• Avoiding the elastic user– If the users haven’t been clearly defined, they may

stretch to fit the needs of the product team• “Our students are very tech-savvy, and will certainly be able

to figure that out.”• “Students won’t be able to understand this, we need to

create a wizard.”

❁ User Research ❁ Modeling ❁ Requirements Definition ❁ UI Framework Definition ❁ UI Design ❁ Development Support

Page 24: Using Personas to Create User-centered Designs€¦ · What is user-centered design? •User-centered design is a product development methodology based on actual user needs, abilities

Types of personas

• Design Personas– User Personas– Customer Personas– Served Personas– Provisional Personas– Negative Personas

• Other types of Personas– Marketing Personas– Strategy Personas– Organization Personas

❁ User Research ❁ Modeling ❁ Requirements Definition ❁ UI Framework Definition ❁ UI Design ❁ Development Support

Page 25: Using Personas to Create User-centered Designs€¦ · What is user-centered design? •User-centered design is a product development methodology based on actual user needs, abilities

Types of personas

• Primary persona– a persona whose needs must be satisfied– Multiple primary personas require separate interfaces

• Secondary, tertiary, etc. personas– Personas whose needs should be considered after those of the

primary persona(s)– a persona is made secondary because their needs can be

mostly met if the design is focused on the primary persona• Use a bullseye model to keep visualize the different

personas & their relationship to each other

❁ User Research ❁ Modeling ❁ Requirements Definition ❁ UI Framework Definition ❁ UI Design ❁ Development Support

Page 26: Using Personas to Create User-centered Designs€¦ · What is user-centered design? •User-centered design is a product development methodology based on actual user needs, abilities

Gathering information forpersonas

• User observation• Contextual inquiries• Interviews• Focus groups• Existing data• Existing knowledge

❁ User Research ❁ Modeling ❁ Requirements Definition ❁ UI Framework Definition ❁ UI Design ❁ Development Support

Page 27: Using Personas to Create User-centered Designs€¦ · What is user-centered design? •User-centered design is a product development methodology based on actual user needs, abilities

Personas should containinformation on…• Goals• Attitudes (related to your context)• Behaviors & Tasks (in your context)

• Photo• Name• Tagline• Demographic info• Skill level• Environment

• Scenarios

❁ User Research ❁ Modeling ❁ Requirements Definition ❁ UI Framework Definition ❁ UI Design ❁ Development Support

Page 28: Using Personas to Create User-centered Designs€¦ · What is user-centered design? •User-centered design is a product development methodology based on actual user needs, abilities

Persona: Matthew Johnson,USDA Senior Manager

Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Economic Research Service (ERS).

❁ User Research ❁ Modeling ❁ Requirements Definition ❁ UI Framework Definition ❁ UI Design ❁ Development Support

Page 29: Using Personas to Create User-centered Designs€¦ · What is user-centered design? •User-centered design is a product development methodology based on actual user needs, abilities

How are personas created?

• Persona hypothesis• User research• Identify behavioral variables/attributes• Persona scales• Choose personas• Write personas• Communicate personas

❁ User Research ❁ Modeling ❁ Requirements Definition ❁ UI Framework Definition ❁ UI Design ❁ Development Support

Page 30: Using Personas to Create User-centered Designs€¦ · What is user-centered design? •User-centered design is a product development methodology based on actual user needs, abilities

Persona hypothesis

• A starting point to help determine what types of users toresearch– Differentiate users based on needs and behaviors– More user types can be added later if research points to other

types• Should be based on hypothesized behavior patterns• Should be based on information gathered from

stakeholders, SME’s and review of existing literature• Should not be based purely on demographics• Often map to roles in a non-consumer domain (e.g.

education)

❁ User Research ❁ Modeling ❁ Requirements Definition ❁ UI Framework Definition ❁ UI Design ❁ Development Support

Page 31: Using Personas to Create User-centered Designs€¦ · What is user-centered design? •User-centered design is a product development methodology based on actual user needs, abilities

User research

• Interview & observe users in the context of their work• Use focus structure document to guide each user visit• Take detailed notes & photos• Process ‘raw’ notes into a more categorized & synthesized

format• Create summaries

❁ User Research ❁ Modeling ❁ Requirements Definition ❁ UI Framework Definition ❁ UI Design ❁ Development Support

Page 32: Using Personas to Create User-centered Designs€¦ · What is user-centered design? •User-centered design is a product development methodology based on actual user needs, abilities

Persona: Michael the ModeratelySeasoned Professional

Source: Todd Warfel "Data Driven Personas"

❁ User Research ❁ Modeling ❁ Requirements Definition ❁ UI Framework Definition ❁ UI Design ❁ Development Support

Page 33: Using Personas to Create User-centered Designs€¦ · What is user-centered design? •User-centered design is a product development methodology based on actual user needs, abilities

Identify variables

• Personas should be based on observed behavior patterns• Identify the behavioral variables which differentiated your

interviewees• Two by two comparison - UIE.com method

– Read two randomly chosen summaries– List attributes that make interviewees similar & different– Replace one of the summaries with another randomly chosen

one– Repeat until all summaries are read

• Choose endpoints of scales

❁ User Research ❁ Modeling ❁ Requirements Definition ❁ UI Framework Definition ❁ UI Design ❁ Development Support

Page 34: Using Personas to Create User-centered Designs€¦ · What is user-centered design? •User-centered design is a product development methodology based on actual user needs, abilities

Persona scales

❁ User Research ❁ Modeling ❁ Requirements Definition ❁ UI Framework Definition ❁ UI Design ❁ Development Support

Page 35: Using Personas to Create User-centered Designs€¦ · What is user-centered design? •User-centered design is a product development methodology based on actual user needs, abilities

Choose personas

• Determine list of potential personas based on commonbehavioral patterns

• Sanity check– Do they make sense? Do they reflect what we’ve seen? Are

there too many to be useful? Will they help us make designdecisions?

• Finalize initial persona list

❁ User Research ❁ Modeling ❁ Requirements Definition ❁ UI Framework Definition ❁ UI Design ❁ Development Support

Page 36: Using Personas to Create User-centered Designs€¦ · What is user-centered design? •User-centered design is a product development methodology based on actual user needs, abilities

Write personas

• Draft persona characteristics & goals for each persona– Should come from actual user research - go back to your notes– These attributes should be relevant to your design context

• Check persona set– Anything missing?– Any redundant personas?

• Write the persona descriptions– Some bulleted lists, some narrative– You may have multiple formats depending on your team’s needs– A few personal details OK

• Try to relate them to your design• Add them last

• Choose primary, secondary, etc. persona(s)

Page 37: Using Personas to Create User-centered Designs€¦ · What is user-centered design? •User-centered design is a product development methodology based on actual user needs, abilities

Communicate personas

• Introductory workshop• Posting one or two page summaries in work areas• Laminated sheet containing short summaries of all

personas• Persona deck of cards• Have everyone put a persona on their door to

represent who they identify with• Set up a work area for a persona

❁ User Research ❁ Modeling ❁ Requirements Definition ❁ UI Framework Definition ❁ UI Design ❁ Development Support

Page 38: Using Personas to Create User-centered Designs€¦ · What is user-centered design? •User-centered design is a product development methodology based on actual user needs, abilities

Scenarios

• A design technique used to envision future use of a system– Focusing on how users can achieve their goals– Helps designers & developers understand how system

will really be used• A story about a particular persona interacting with the

system• May be based on a use case, or a set of use cases• Can use them for usability testing• Scenarios become progressively more detailed

❁ User Research ❁ Modeling ❁ Requirements Definition ❁ UI Framework Definition ❁ UI Design ❁ Development Support

Page 39: Using Personas to Create User-centered Designs€¦ · What is user-centered design? •User-centered design is a product development methodology based on actual user needs, abilities

Types of Scenarios

• Context Scenarios– High-level, no interaction details– Focus is on how the user can achieve her goals– Part of Requirements Definition phase

• Key path scenarios– Incorporate functional and data needs into the

scenarios– Part of the UI Framework Definition phase

❁ User Research ❁ Modeling ❁ Requirements Definition ❁ UI Framework Definition ❁ UI Design ❁ Development Support

Page 40: Using Personas to Create User-centered Designs€¦ · What is user-centered design? •User-centered design is a product development methodology based on actual user needs, abilities

Persona Resources• Books

– About Face 3.0– The Persona Lifecycle– Practical Personas: The User Is Always Right

• Presentations– UIE's Building Robust Personas in 30 Days or Less:

http://www.uie.com/events/virtual_seminars/building_personas/– "data driven design research personas:"

http://www.slideshare.net/toddwarfel/data-driven-design-research-personas

– "The user is always right: Making Personas Work for Your Site:"http://www.slideshare.net/MulderMedia/the-user-is-always-right-making-personas-work-for-your-site

• Articles– Building a data-backed persona:

http://www.boxesandarrows.com/view/building-a-data– Personas vs. User Descriptions:

http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2007/11/15/personas-vs-user-descriptions-apples-vs-tomatoes/

Page 41: Using Personas to Create User-centered Designs€¦ · What is user-centered design? •User-centered design is a product development methodology based on actual user needs, abilities

Questions?

• Contact info:– Allison Bloodworth, [email protected]– Rachel Hollowgrass, [email protected]