Using Personas

A client case study illustrating the creation and usefulness of personas as part of the overall design process.

Transcript

1. Client Case Study: Using Personas | 2014 Sarah Skaggs Client Case Study: Using Personas
2. Client Case Study: Using Personas | 2014 Sarah Skaggs INTRODUCTION 2 During my time as a design researcher, I’ve come to rely increasingly on personas to distill and visualize research findings. They’re also an incredibly useful tool for guiding design, IA, content, and development decisions that spring from the research. Ideally, the personas we create become a short hand in our conversations with clients, i.e., “knowing what we know about Laura, how would she respond to X?” When introducing the concept of personas to clients, we stress the following: • Personas represent 2-4 major sets of behaviors and needs, as derived from interviews we conducted with real people. • Personas are not fabricated to support a pre-existing assumption • Personas are not market segments, and they’re not edge cases • Personas help keep us (designers and clients) honest, i.e., think of customer needs first For a recent project, the client (a domain registrar) asked us to help them design a store that offered apps and services to complement a customer’s domain. As part of the research, we interviewed eleven (11) representative target audience members in an effort to understand: : • How and why they registered domains • Their expectations of a provider(s) • Their infrastructure needs beyond a domain • Common questions or issues and how they were resolved • How they learned about new products or services Based on what we learned from these users, we created personas to guide us as we created 3 distinct interaction flows for coming to the store, browsing products, and ultimately checking out. CLIENT CASE STUDY: PERSONAS
3. Client Case Study: Using Personas | 2014 Sarah Skaggs CLIENT CASE STUDY: PERSONAS 3 The Beginner Stephanie is a 40-year-old artist who’d like to set up a marketing site to promote her work. She’s an avid blogger but knows eventually she’ll need a platform that gives her more flexibility. Quote: “I want to set up a website but I don’t know what I don’t know.” Goals • Get the best price • Set up website with minimal effort and research • Build her business Needs & Priorities • Needs a marketing site now, commerce later • Set up website with minimal effort and research • Wants to know what functionality is necessary vs. nice to have Behaviors & Habits • Found her domain registrar by googling • Has heard of Squarespace and Shopify The Admin Ray is 35 years old and a freelance web developer living in Portland, OR. He tends to be the guy that family and friends call for tech support. Quote: “I could walk my clients through set up, but it’s easier if I do it myself.” Goals • Build his business • Get answers to support or account questions without using the phone Needs & Priorities • Reliable hosting, minimal downtime • Accessible, consistent and knowledgeable support • Well organized how-tos Behaviors & Habits • Uses same (often disparate) providers out of habit, as long as the price is still right • Would move hosting, domain, and other services/apps to one provider if it were more convenient • Proactively follows providers for updates and new feature releases • Opts out of email notifications whenever possible The App Developer Andy (26), along with this small startup team, has developed a series of apps that customers can install directly to their websites. Quote: “I’d like to get my product out in front of as many people as possible.” Goals • Solve a problem • Gain respect among the developer community • Build his business Needs & Priorities • A well-documented API • A variety of environments for OS, servers, databases • Statistics and insight into how to adapt to customer needs Behaviors & Habits • Trusts word-of-mouth recommendations from respected online peers and forums • Buys domain names regularly for testing • Values and listens to customer feedback