What are personas? http://www.steptwo.com.au/papers/kmc_personas/index.html Personas are archetypal users of an intranet or website that represent the needs of larger groups of users, in terms of their goals and personal characteristics. They act as ‘stand-ins’ for real users and help guide decisions about functionality and design. Personas identify the user motivations, expectations and goals responsible for driving online behaviour, and bring users to life by giving them names, personalities and often a photo. Although personas are fictitious, they are based on knowledge of real users. Some form of user research is conducted before they are written to ensure they represent end users rather than the opinion of the person writing the personas. Below is a sample persona for an intranet project. This persona describes Bob, a 52 year old mechanic that works for a road service company. From Bob’s persona you can start to get a feel for his goals when using the new intranet. He wants to avoid feeling stupid, would like to retain his status as a mentor to his younger colleagues, whilst seeing the potential of the intranet to make him more informed when interacting with customers. Benefits of creating personas Personas enable intranet and website teams to stand in their users’ shoes. They focus the design effort on supporting user goals, rather than being driven by the ideas of team members or senior executives. Introducing personas into your intranet or website project will bring a number of benefits: • users’ goals and needs become a common point of focus for the team • the team can concentrate on designing for a manageable set of personas knowing that they represent the needs of many users • they are relatively quick to develop and replace the need to canvass the whole user community and spend months gathering user requirements • they help avoid the trap of building what users ask for rather than what they will actually use • design efforts can be prioritised based on the personas • disagreements over design decisions can be sorted out by referring back to the personas • designs can be constantly evaluated against the personas, reducing the frequency of large and expensive usability tests. Personas are not stand-alone Although personas have many benefits, they alone will not ensure the success of your intranet or website. The goals of the business must also be considered, because if the website or intranet does not meet business needs, then the solution is not a viable one. For example, an intranet may aim to reduce organisational costs and increase staff efficiency, while an ecommerce website aims to make sales. Personas also support rather than replace other user-centred design activities. There is still a need to conduct task analysis to understand the detailed tasks your intranet or website is to accommodate. There is still value in usability testing the site, and many user-centred design activities are conducted to gather input into the personas, such as user interviewing and observation.

What are personas?

http://www.steptwo.com.au/papers/kmc_personas/index.html

Personas are archetypal users of an intranet or website that represent the needs of larger groups of users, in terms of their goals and personal characteristics. They act as ‘stand-ins’ for real users and help guide decisions about functionality and design.

Personas identify the user motivations, expectations and goals responsible for driving online behaviour, and bring users to life by giving them names, personalities and often a photo.

Although personas are fictitious, they are based on knowledge of real users. Some form of user research is conducted before they are written to ensure they represent end users rather than the opinion of the person writing the personas.

Below is a sample persona for an intranet project. This persona describes Bob, a 52 year old mechanic that works for a road service company. From Bob’s persona you can start to get a feel for his goals when using the new intranet. He wants to avoid feeling stupid, would like to retain his status as a mentor to his younger colleagues, whilst seeing the potential of the intranet to make him more informed when interacting with customers.

Benefits of creating personas

Personas enable intranet and website teams to stand in their users’ shoes. They focus the design effort on supporting user goals, rather than being driven by the ideas of team members or senior executives.

Introducing personas into your intranet or website project will bring a number of benefits:

• users’ goals and needs become a common point of focus for the team
• the team can concentrate on designing for a manageable set of personas knowing that they represent the needs of many users
• they are relatively quick to develop and replace the need to canvass the whole user community and spend months gathering user requirements
• they help avoid the trap of building what users ask for rather than what they will actually use
• design efforts can be prioritised based on the personas
• disagreements over design decisions can be sorted out by referring back to the personas
• designs can be constantly evaluated against the personas, reducing the frequency of large and expensive usability tests.

Personas are not stand-alone

Although personas have many benefits, they alone will not ensure the success of your intranet or website. The goals of the business must also be considered, because if the website or intranet does not meet business needs, then the solution is not a viable one. For example, an intranet may aim to reduce organisational costs and increase staff efficiency, while an ecommerce website aims to make sales.

Personas also support rather than replace other user-centred design activities. There is still a need to conduct task analysis to understand the detailed tasks your intranet or website is to accommodate. There is still value in usability testing the site, and many user-centred design activities are conducted to gather input into the personas, such as user interviewing and observation.