visualizations with empathy: developing audience personas

Visualizations with Empathy:

Developing Audience Personas

Amanda Makulec

John Snow Inc.

Visual Analytics Advisor

How we often

think of our

stakeholders.

Washington D.C.:

Networking Capital

of America

Think beyond job

titles and affiliations.

Each persona represents a significant

portion of people in the real world

and enables the designer to focus on a

manageable and memorable cast of

characters, instead of focusing on

thousands of individuals.”

persona, n.

“A persona is depicted as a specific

person but is not a real individual;

rather, it is synthesized from observations

of many people.

From: https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2014/08/a-closer-look-at-personas-part-1/

Credit to ThinkPlace Foundation, from the Innovations for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health Initiative’s Care Community Hub

empathy

Co-facilitated persona

development in

six countries with evaluators, program

teams, and government staff

steps to develop simple

data viz audience

personas

1. Pick your

stakeholder groups

2. Identify key

personas within a

stakeholder group

motivators

roadblocks &

pain points

priorities

analytic

literacy

Informed about your issue

Awareness of

your issue

Unaware and not

familiar with your issue

Aware of your issue but

mostly uninformed

Aware of your issue but

inaccurately informed

Very aware &

accurately

informed

knowledge

of your issue

values

Credit to ThinkPlace Foundation

a tool for

dialogue

sample template

Ministry of Health

Rachel The Technocrat

Pascal The Politician

for example

segmented to

Wants stories

Wants numbers

Motivated by passion

Motivated by money

Act based on feelings

Act based on data

Resilient problem solver

Frustrated bureaucrat

Champion for your issue

Oppose your issue

mapping by

dimension

Wants stories

Wants numbers

Motivated by passion

Motivated by money

Act based on feelings

Act based on data

Resilient problem solver

Frustrated bureaucrat

Champion for your issue

No knowledge of your issue

mapping by

dimension

Rachel

the Technocrat

Pascal

the Politician

find your persona

Not just

job titles

stakeholder groups

organization names

Focus on the human side of

your data viz audience.

rad resources

HCD Facilitation Tools

dschool.stanford.edu/

use-our-methods

Understanding Audiences

smartchart.org

Follow @JSIhealth

Amanda Makulec

amanda_makulec@jsi.com

@abmakulec