Survey tips

• Aim for 100+ completios per segment
• make it less than 15 minutes long
• ask about behaviour (not importance)
• clear, familiar language
• use scales (not y/n)
• randomise answers when appropriate
• don’t avoid open-ended input fields
• break up into pages

From UXLX11 (Johnny Holland)

Persona template (PDF and Omnigraffle)

Persona template (PDF)
Persona template (Omnigraffle, wrapped in ZIP file)

Persona definition

A persona is a realistic character sketch representing one segment of a Web site’s targeted audience. Each persona is an archetype serving as a surrogate for an entire group of real people. Personas sunmmarize research findings and bring that reserach to life in such a way that a company can make decisions based on these personas, not based on themselves.

Mulder/Yaar (2010) p. 19

Persona Essentials

There are a number of defining characteristics of personas:
• Personas are hypothetical archetypes, or “stand-ins” for actual users that drive the decision making for interface design and functionality.
• Personas are not real people, but they represent real people throughout the design and refinement processes.
• Personas are not “made up”; they are ideally discovered as a by-product of the investigative process.
• Although personas are imaginary, they are defined with rigor and precision. They unite teams around one shared vision of whom to design for and what they want.
• Names, personal details, attitudes, behaviors and workspace stresses are developed for personas to make them more realistic.
• Personas are defined by their goals (when visiting the intranet or portal).
• Interfaces are built to satisfy personas’ information needs and goal-seeking and task-completion behaviors.

Original Source: Alan Cooper, The Inmates Are Running the Asylum: Why High-Tech Products Drive Us Crazy and How to Restore the Sanity, Indianapolis: Sams, 1999, pp. 123-24. (Wording condensed and modified, sourced from http://www.mcq.com/article-persona)

Personas

“A summary representation of the system’s intended users, often described as real people. Any project can have one or more personas, each representing a different kind of audience for the system. Also known as: user profiles, user role definitions, audience profiles.”

From: Brown, Dan (2007), Communicating Design, Berkeley: New Riders, p.15

Personas

“Personas are archetypal users that exist mainly as design targets.”

From: Wodtke, Christina (2003), Information Architecture: Blueprints for the Web, Berkeley, CA: New Riders, p.164

How to create personas

1. Summarize findings [from reserach!], distribute discovery document [to stakeholders]
1. specific and as precise as possible
2. relevant to your product
3. universal, ie not a singular attitude
2. Hold a work session to brainstorm personas
3. Prioritize and cull personas to develop primary, secondary and
   supporting personas
4. make the personas into real people (use quotes: “The quotes act as mnemonics to keep the team connected to ther persona and the persona’s goals. It should be something that catches the nature
   of the persona’s personality and her attitude towards the
   product.” p. 177
5. apply the personas

From: Wodtke, Christina (2003), Information Architecture: Blueprints for the Web, Berkeley, CA: New Riders