Using Personas to Create Usercentered Designs Allison Bloodworth

Using Personas to Create User-centered Designs Allison Bloodworth, Senior User Interaction Designer, Educational Technology Services, University of California - Berkeley July 2, 2008

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

What is user-centered design? • User-centered design is a product development methodology based on actual user needs, behaviors, abilities and perceptions. • User-centered design is used by UC Berkeley because it offers the most effective path to useful and usable products. • Personas put a human face on the amorphous “user” because they are based on actual user needs. They save time by focusing development toward real use cases and away from unlikely “edge” cases.

User-centered design at Berkeley • 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 system definition & design

Why focus on user goals vs. (current) tasks? • “The way people do things today is often merely the product of the obsolete systems and organizations they are forced to interact with, and typically bear little resemblance to the way they would like to do things, or they way they would be most effective. ” – About Face 3. 0 • Just putting existing processes on-line often is not enough • Improving processes is often the best way help users achieve their goals

User-centered design at Berkeley ü ü ü User Research Modeling Requirements Definition UI Framework Definition UI Design Development Support User Research Modeling Requirements Definition UI Framework Definition UI Design Development Support

User-centered design at Berkeley User Research Modeling Requirements Definition UI Framework Definition UI Design Development Support

User-centered design at Berkeley User Research Modeling Requirements Definition UI Framework Definition UI Design Development Support

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

Modeling • Make sense of research findings – Personas – Mental models – Use cases - current or future processes – Use case frequency matrix – Activity diagrams - more complex processes – Artifact models • Helps gain consensus early on…before any design happens • Provides shared language & vision User Research Modeling Requirements Definition UI Framework Definition UI Design Development Support

Persona: Michael the Moderately Seasoned Professional Source: Todd Warfel "Data Driven Personas”: http: //www. slideshare. net/toddwarfel/data-driven-personas User Research Modeling Requirements Definition UI Framework Definition UI Design Development Support

Requirements Definition • Refined based on: – User needs – Business goals – Customer needs • Context Scenarios – New processes, context of use – How users complete an activity User Research Modeling Requirements Definition UI Framework Definition UI Design Development Support

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 be used for usability testing • Scenarios become progressively more detailed User Research Modeling Requirements Definition UI Framework Definition UI Design Development Support

Types of Scenarios 1. Context Scenarios – High-level, no interaction details – Focus is on how the user can achieve her goals – Part of Requirements Definition phase 2. Key path scenarios – Incorporate functional and data needs into the scenarios – Part of the next phase: UI Framework Definition phase User Research Modeling Requirements Definition UI Framework Definition UI Design Development Support

Example Scenarios • Context Scenario – Lisa is in lecture and realizes she’s confused when the instructor starts talking about mitosis. She takes note of the time. – Later that day she opens up her b. Space course site and goes directly to the webcast for that day and reviews the portions of lecture via the webcast she needed clarification on. • Key Path Scenario – Lisa is in lecture and realizes she’s confused when the instructor starts talking about mitosis. She takes note of the time. – Later that day she opens up her b. Space course site clicks on the “Most Recent Webcast” link. b. Space switches to the “Use Webcast” View and the webcast for the day plays. – Lisa looks at her notes to see the time she noted earlier, and enters it into the “Lecture Time” field and presses “Enter. ” The lecture jumps forward to the point where the instructor was talking about mitosis.

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. ? – Should be a holistic view of the design, not too detailed • Key path scenarios • Allows for iterating on the details • Start talking about technical feasibility User Research Modeling Requirements Definition UI Framework Definition UI Design Development Support

UI design “Design is the conscious and intuitive effort to impose meaningful order” • Interaction design AND visual design – How does it behave? – What does it look like? – How does it make users feel? • Wireframes, mock-ups, and/or prototypes User Research Modeling Requirements Definition UI Framework Definition UI Design Development Support

Development Support • Constant communication – No throwing it over the wall • Continuous iterations as we learn more from development User Research Modeling Requirements Definition UI Framework Definition UI Design Development Support

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 without them User Research Modeling Requirements Definition UI Framework Definition UI Design Development Support

Persona: Sarah Windsor, Overwhelmed Faculty From: http: //wiki. fluidproject. org/display/fluid/Sarah+Windsor+-+Primary+Persona Source: Sakai From: http: //wiki. fluidproject. org/display/fluid/Sarah+Windsor+-+Primary+Persona User Research Modeling Requirements Definition UI Framework Definition UI Design Development Support

Persona do’s and don’ts • 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 only on user roles be based only on information gathered from subject matter experts, as they cannot completely represent end users User Research Modeling Requirements Definition UI Framework Definition UI Design Development Support

Why use personas? • • Focus Empathy Gaining consensus Avoiding the elastic user User Research Modeling Requirements Definition UI Framework Definition UI Design Development Support

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 --must have a way to make choices – Helps prevent focusing the design on: • edge cases • averages User Research Modeling Requirements Definition UI Framework Definition UI Design Development Support

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

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, without even knowing it – Gives the team a tool to reason through design decisions User Research Modeling Requirements Definition UI Framework Definition UI Design Development Support

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 just won’t be able to understand how to do this. We need to create a wizard. ” User Research Modeling Requirements Definition UI Framework Definition UI Design Development Support

Types of personas • Design Personas – – – User Personas (most common) Customer/Buyer Personas Served Personas Negative Personas Provisional Personas • Other types of Personas – Marketing Personas – Strategy Personas – Organization Personas User Research Modeling Requirements Definition UI Framework Definition UI Design Development Support

Personas usually contain… • 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

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

Primary Persona: Ernest the Engaged Employee “Work is important, but not my whole life. ” Personal Information Profession: Data Architect Age: 43 Background: Originally from upstate New York Education: BS in Library Science from Columbia. Is continuing his education informally, by sitting in on classes at UC Berkeley’s School of Information whenever he can. Attends industry conferences about once a year. UCB Background: “Fell” into a technical position at UC Berkeley 8 years ago after working in libraries. Home Life: Has been married for 15 years and has two children, ages 6 and 13. Their family has a pet Cockatoo. He is interesting in volunteering some time at his 6 -year-old’s Montessori School in Berkeley. Hobbies: Photography (learning Photoshop) Personality: Efficient, detail-oriented, dedicated. Enjoys meeting new people and learning about them. User Goals • • To be as efficient as possible at work so he can spend as much quality time with his family as possible To make more money To continue to learn To improve his photography & perhaps make it more of a business Pain Points • • After the IST re-org, some processes have been unclear, and he’s often had to hunt around for the right person to get things done. Too many passwords to remember Too many collaborative tools being used in organization Information he needs is all over the place, not organized efficiently Site Objectives • • • Help Ernest find the information he needs quickly & easily Clarify the IST/OCIO information available instead of adding just another site to the confusion Help Ernest learn about and connect with the IST/OCIO community User Research Modeling Requirements Definition UI Framework Definition UI Design Development Support

Sakai Persona Map From: http: //bugs. sakaiproject. org/confluence/display/ENC/Sakai+Personas User Research Modeling Requirements Definition UI Framework Definition UI Design Development Support

Methods used for gathering information for personas • • User observation Contextual inquiries Interviews Focus groups Diary studies Existing data Existing knowledge User Research Modeling Requirements Definition UI Framework Definition UI Design Development Support

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

Persona hypothesis • A starting point to help determine what types of users to research • Created before talking to end users – Based on information gathered from stakeholders, SME’s, your personal knowledge, and review of existing literature – Hypothesized behavior patterns – Should not be based purely on demographics • Differentiate users based on needs and behaviors – More user types can be added later if research points to other types – Often map to roles in a non-consumer domain (e. g. education) • Can be just a rough outline/list of user goals & behavior patterns you expect to see User Research Modeling Requirements Definition UI Framework Definition UI Design Development Support

Fluid CM research: User behavior/characteristic matrices • • User types (Roles) Application (CMS) use Class structure Group size • Technical level • Country/region • Type of institution From: http: //wiki. fluidproject. org/x/vg. Ia User Research Modeling Requirements Definition UI Framework Definition UI Design Development Support

User research • • • Interview & observe users in the context of their work Use focus structure document to guide each user visit Take detailed notes & photos – – • • Capture interesting quotes Use symbols in notes to organize info Process ‘raw’ notes into a more categorized & synthesized format Create summaries of notes User Research Modeling Requirements Definition UI Framework Definition UI Design Development Support

Raw notes - Works both at home and in her (very organized) office; carries her PC back and forth - Seminar: posts multiple discussion questions each week, has students respond to 1 each week. Part of participation grade which is 25% of their total grade. - Would like students to have a one stop shop where they can get all info for her class: website, b. Space, Library Resources - Throughout the semester she puts all her grades in Excel; she has mostly quizzes and exams, and only has a few assignments – Wants to be able to save copies of files having to do with students on her local drive • Helpful info if students ask for recommendations later - She’s usually only a week ahead of the class in her preparation, which may change in the future when she’s taught the class more User Research Modeling Requirements Definition UI Framework Definition UI Design Development Support

Categorized Notes - Content Management Interview/Observation Setup Persona Info (personal details) Context of work Teaching style/format Computer/Technology use Use cases/Activities Pain points/Opportunities/Time wasters • User goals • • • • Typical/Good/Bad day Course Details Schedule/Organization General CMS/LMS use & activities Types of course materials Communication Content Reuse Photos User Research Modeling Requirements Definition UI Framework Definition UI Design Development Support

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

Persona scales Distinctions • • • Roles Support running class Timing of posting materials Primary type of communication Number of computers Overall goal – change the field – teach students – get published Previous LMS use Years teaching Years at current institution Large, small or both classes Discipline From: http: //wiki. fluidproject. org/display/fluid/Content+Management+Research+Models User Research Modeling Requirements Definition UI Framework Definition UI Design Development Support

Choose personas • Determine list of potential personas based on common behavioral 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 design decisions? • Finalize initial persona list User Research Modeling Requirements Definition UI Framework Definition UI Design Development Support

Write personas • Draft persona characteristics & goals for each persona – If possible, all info should come from actual user research (your notes) – All persona information 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) User Research Modeling Requirements Definition UI Framework Definition UI Design Development Support

Fluid Content Management Personas Instructor Personas Ahmad Yousef (Faculty - Tenuretrack History) George Ahmad Yousef Mc. Fadden (Faculty - Tenure(Online Instructor track History) - Journalism) George Mc. Fadden (Online Instructor Journalism) Henry Sibley (Longtime Faculty Chemistry) Catalina De Silva (Faculty - GSI Manager in Spanish) Robin Mc. Coy (Faculty - Business School) Sergio Rossi (Graduate Teaching Assistant - Urban Affairs & Planning) Stacey Pearson (Graduate Teaching Assistant - Biochemistry) From: http: //wiki. fluidproject. org/display/fluid/Content+Management+Research+Models User Research Modeling Requirements Definition UI Framework Definition UI Design Development Support

Fluid Content Management Personas Student Personas Christy Gonzola Ashley Myles Shaina Wiseman Andy Wright (Undergraduate Student - Molecular & Cell Biology) (Undergraduate Student - Acheology) (Graduate Student Land Development) (Graduate Student Information Studies) From: http: //wiki. fluidproject. org/display/fluid/Content+Management+Research+Models User Research Modeling Requirements Definition UI Framework Definition UI Design Development Support

Fluid Content Management Personas Instructional Support Staff Personas Michael Demsky Anita Stalmach (Departmental Support - Biology) (Departmental Pedagogy Support - Instructional Designer) From: http: //wiki. fluidproject. org/display/fluid/Content+Management+Research+Models User Research Modeling Requirements Definition UI Framework Definition UI Design Development Support

Stacy Pearson - TA Trainer/ Graduate Teaching Assistant • Characteristics – • Lives in the suburbs, about 40 minutes outside the city by car, with her parents – Is a 3 rd year Ph. D student with a specialty in Biochemistry, and has been TAing since 2004 – Comes in everyday at 6: 30 am and spends all day on campus until around 5 pm. She does most of the work on campus, in the lab and in her office, and none at home. – She coordinates the TA training program where she trains TAs through the office of Teaching Advancement. With other coordinators, she organizes workshops for TAs on how to teach students. – She uses Blackboard as a TA but is not a huge fan. She only login when she gets an email notification with important announcements. – She uses a highly paper-based file organization system. She prints out course materials and organizes them into binders in chronological order. – If she needs to take files home, she emails her files to her Yahoo account. Goals – Get her Ph. D – Become a better teacher "I'm all manual. Papers, folders, and binders. ” Main Points: ü Uses physical folders, binders, and drawers to organize her reading materials ü Teaches TAs how to teach students ü Concerned about Mac-PC compatibility when transferring files üFrustrated that she doesn't have access to the LMS her students are using From: http: //wiki. fluidproject. org/x/f. Y 4 User Research Modeling Requirements Definition UI Framework Definition UI Design Development Support

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

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-researchpersonas – "The user is always right: Making Personas Work for Your Site: " http: //www. slideshare. net/Mulder. Media/the-user-is-always-right-makingpersonas-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/

Questions? • Let’s talk during the conference! • Check out the Fluid UX Toolkit: http: //wiki. fluidproject. org/display/fluid/UX+Toolkit • Contact info: – Allison Bloodworth, University of California, Berkeley: abloodworth@berkeley. edu

Persona Example: Matthew Johnson, USDA Senior Manager Source: U. S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Economic Research Service (ERS), http: //www. usability. gov/analyze/personas. html User Research Modeling Requirements Definition UI Framework Definition UI Design Development Support