of a customer segment in the form of an idealized person. Personas should always be based on thorough research of the users of a service or product. A large number of users/customers should be interviewed and the results of the interviews should be analyzed and clustered according to common traits. Based on the clustering the persona categories emerge with different traits influencing their interactions and/or attitude towards the service. From these traits and other commonalities between the individuals in the cluster an imaginary person is constructed. The various personas constructed should together capture all important attitudes which are held by the users of the service. As the design process continues, the personas are used as stand-ins for the actual users of the service to check feasibility of ideas and that any important features aren’t missing. Personas, however, are not meant to replace the actual users, rather they are meant to be a good way of reflecting on user needs. Source: April Starr Other sources: The British Standard for Service Design (BS 7000 -3, BS 7000 -10, BS EN ISO 9000). Morelli, N. (2002): “Designing product/service systems. A methodological exploration.” Design Issues 18(3): 3-17. http://servicedesign.wikispaces.com/ Shostack, L. G. (1982): How to Design a Service. European Journal of Marketing, 16(1), 49-63. Shostack, L. G. (1984): Design Services that Deliver. Harvard Business Review (84115), 133-139. Saffer, D. (2005): Designing for interaction: creating smart applications and clever devices. Berkeley. CA: New Riders
Personas are usually developed by finding patterns based from one or more of the following: What are people doing (behaviors and activities)? How do they go about doing it? What are their goals / ambitions / aspirations? What do they value? What obstacles do they face? What questions do they have? Once you have created a set of draft personas, refine by… Giving each type a descriptive name. Ensuring they are MECE (mutually exclusive, collectively exhaustive). Making sure you can fit 90% of the target audience into one of the types. Identifying and resolving any missing users. Identifying and eliminating any null types.
2015 Jeremy Alexis Users would benefit from a single device having: • Useful data • Time of day • Time elapsed since start of climb. • Time elapsed since last meal • Altitude • Direction • Map and location. • Ability to communicate. • Location “beacon” • Durability given rough use. • Readability in low light and odd “stances” • No hands operation • Long battery life.
too far-out to consider • No critical commenting during idea generation • It constrains creativity • No adherence to a fixed process • it is ok to backtrack and introduce new ideas at any time • No intent to identify a one best option. • The goal is to identify possibilities that can be incorporated into prototypes as options.