Sample Teach — Personas

A 20 minute lecture on the topic of Personas.
Given at the General Assembly as a sample teach.

@GA deck shell and template used.

Transcript

1. UNDERSTANDING USERS
   PERSONAS
   

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2. UNDERSTANDING USERS
   PERSONAS
   

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3. USER EXPERIENCE DESIGN
   3
   1. Foundation and Process
   2. User Research & Strategy
   1. User Research & Personas
   2. Design Skills
   3. Sketching Workshop
   4. Business Analysis & Product Management
   3. Structure
   4. Documentation
   5. Design Patterns
   6. Portfolio & Presentation
   

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4. USER EXPERIENCE DESIGN
   4
   1. Foundation and Process
   2. User Research & Strategy
   1. User Research & Personas
   2. Design Skills
   3. Sketching Workshop
   4. Business Analysis & Product Management
   3. Structure
   4. Documentation
   5. Design Patterns
   6. Portfolio & Presentation
   

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5. INTRO
   USER CENTERED DESIGN 5
   ‣ UCD introduced by Don Norman in 1986 in his book

   The Design of Everyday Things
   ‣ uses the term "user-centered design" to describe design
   based on the needs of the user
   ‣ aesthetics are secondary issues
   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User-centered_design#Analysis_tools_used_in_user-centered_design
   

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6. PERSONAS
   CONTEXT
   “I think we should do this…”
   vs
   “Our user A, would think this…”
   6
   DECISIONS ARE JUSTIFIED BASED ON PERSONAL PREFERENCE AND OPINION.
   PERSONAS GIVE THE USER A VOICE.
   

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7. PERSONAS
   WHAT ARE PERSONAS?
   ‣ Fictional character representative of a unique group of users
   (who share common goals).
   ‣ Created by conducting user research and summarizing
   trends into one or more archetypes.
   ‣ Analysis tools used in user-centered design

   (personas, scenarios, and essential use cases).
   7
   

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8. PERSONAS
   THE INVENTION OF PERSONAS
   ‣ Alan Cooper in 1999, The Inmates Are Running the Asylum.
   ‣ The goal was to give designers focus and to make users seem
   more like real people.
   8
   

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9. PERSONAS
   ‣ To create empathy and motivation for the team.
   ‣ Personas do this by allowing us to connect emotionally with
   other individuals rather than abstract collections such as
   “users” or “SingleTicketPurchasers”
   9
   PRIMARY GOAL
   

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10. PERSONAS
    ‣ Communication tool.
    ‣ Useful for summarizing what you know about your user.
    ‣ Will help to highlight pain points and opportunities to tailor
    your product to your user
    ‣ Keep your product focused on your key users rather than
    building for the whole world.
    10
    WHY ARE PERSONAS IMPORTANT?
    

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11. PRODUCT MANAGEMENT
    HOW TO CRAFT A
    PERSONA
    

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12. HOW TO CRAFT A PERSONA
    ‣ Root it in reality. Based on the data you’ve gathered,
    not your imagination.
    ‣ Goals / Needs
    ‣ Behaviors
    ‣ Biographical information (name, photo, age, gender,
    location, income, etc)
    ‣ Optionally assign it personality traits (again, based
    on your research)
    12
    WHAT SHOULD IT INCLUDE?
    › MAKING PERSONAS ACTUALLY USEFUL
    

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14. HOW TO CRAFT A PERSONA
    ‣ Are short stories about a person using your
    product to achieve a goal.
    ‣ Describes what they would do and why they
    would do it
    ‣ Independent of interface
    ‣ Gives the context in which its used
    14
    SCENARIOS
    

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15. HOW TO CRAFT A PERSONA
    ‣ …about personas, not roles
    ‣ In the third person

    persona[:role]> [so that]
    ‣ By UX specialists in collaboration with business analysts
    ‣ After user research and rough design
    15
    SCENARIOS ARE WRITTEN
    http://interactions.acm.org/archive/view/november-december-2013/user-stories-dont-help-users-Introducing-persona-stories
    

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16. David is a return visitor. He receives our weekly email newsletter
    with tips on using new features on Monday morning at 10AM,
    immediately after his status meeting at the office. He clicks
    through from his Android phone. He has time to read a single blog
    post before his next meeting.
    http://www.nngroup.com/articles/analytics-persona-segment/
    EXAMPLE
    

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17. HOW TO CRAFT A PERSONA
    17
    

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18. HOW TO CRAFT A PERSONA
    18
    

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19. HOW TO CRAFT A PERSONA
    19
    

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20. UNDERSTANDING USERS
    CHALLENGES OF
    PERSONAS
    

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21. CHALLENGES OF PERSONAS
    WHAT ARE SOME CHALLENGES
    OF USING PERSONAS?
    ‣ They can be artificial / abstract / fictitious
    ‣ They are a composite sketch of 10 people all rolled into 1
    ‣ They don’t have opinions
    ‣ They can’t talk back, answer questions, or give feedback
    21
    

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22. PERSONAS
    CREATE YOUR OWN
    PERSONA
    

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23. CREATE YOUR OWN PERSONA
    ‣ Go to http://bit.ly/ga-personas-1
    ‣ You’re creating a set of personas for Amazon’s site redesign
    ‣ Using the data from this user research, try to extract trends and
    develop 2-3 personas
    ‣ Be ready to share!
    23
    TASK
    

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24. EXPAND THE KNOWLEDGE
    ‣ The Persona Lifecycle: A Field Guide for Interaction Designers,
    by John Pruitt and Tamara Adli
    ‣ http://www.nngroup.com/articles/analytics-persona-segment/
    ‣ http://mrjoe.uk/personas-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly/
    ‣ http://www.nngroup.com/articles/ecommerce-shoppers/
    ‣ http://goo.gl/2ly3dk
    ‣ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User-centered_design
    24
    RESOURCES
    

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