Thursday, March 29, 2012

Persona Non Grata - Don't forget the users when doing your designs!

"Pinning down some user characteristics using persona development techniques can save you time and money by offering a window into the minds of your potential users. More than that, by naming these individuals and making them actual pseudo-people, you have an easy point of reference you can come back to again and again."
  • Persona-Based Development
  • Traditional Requirements + Use Cases = New Features
  • Users learn things in many different ways
    • Tactile/Visual/Aural/etc
  • Personas help to address this
    • The Inmates are Running the Asylum by Alan Cooper
    • Collection of details about a person
    • Persona is a character in a user story based on a plot inspired by you use case
    • A perspective of a character in a story
  • How do I create a persona?
    • "Assumption-based" approach
    • The process requires some role playing
  • Persona example:
    • Common quote
    • Short description
    • Sample resume with broad picture of his experience
  • Persona is applied to problem by role playing to look at it from the other person's perspective
    • Where would he start
    • What questions does he have
    • What documentation is available
  • Benefits
    • Consistant approach
    • Shared vision - keeps user in mind
    • Everyone can use the personas
  • Use is iterative and applied throughout the development
  • Personas referred to by name
  • User story = Persona+Use case
  • Catalog of personas to share them along with user stories
  • Keep 2-3 personas to prevent things from getting out of hand

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