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User-Centered Design With Pragmatic Personas

Pavel Dabrytski and Angie Doyle

2

how do you

identify what to

build ?

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FUBUfor us by us

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FMBUfor me by you

(product owner in scrum/XP)

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MSUmaking *things* up

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FTBUfor them by you

(user centered design)

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user rolea grouping of users of a

product based on a shared set of tasks or functions they need to perform, or common needs

they need to fulfill

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Engineering for function vs designing for humans

• Incredibly Fast

• Error Free

• Apathetic

• Sequential

• Predictable

• Stupid

• Incredibly Slow

• Error Prone

• Emotional

• Random

• Unpredictable

• Intelligent

The inmates are running the Asylum: Alan Cooper

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Engineering for function vs designing for humans

• Incredibly Fast

• Error Free

• Apathetic

• Sequential

• Predictable

• Stupid

• Incredibly Slow

• Error Prone

• Emotional

• Random

• Unpredictable

• Intelligent

The inmates are running the Asylum: Alan Cooper

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How to create user roles

1.

Brainstorm an initial set of user roles

2.

Organize the initial

set

3. Consolidate

roles

4.

Refine the roles

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1. Brainstorm an initial set of user roles• Done with the business, customer and development team

• Brainstorm for approx. 15 minutes

• Each person writes down as many roles as they can

TIP:

• Stick to roles that represent a single user

• Try not to include non-human roles

• Think about kinds of jobs held by users

Job Seeker

First Timer

Layoff Victim

Monitor

Job Poster

CV Reader

Recruiter

System Admin

University Grad

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2. Organize the initial set• Place almost identical roles on top of each other

• If roles are similar, place them as slightly overlapping

Almost identical

Similar

Job Seeker

First Timer

Layoff Victim

Monitor

Job Poster CV Reader

Recruiter

System Admin

University Grad

Similar

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3. Consolidate roles• Start with the roles that are overlapping

• Discuss if the roles are equivalent

• Consolidate

• Rip up roles that are not important

• Focus on roles that make or break the success of the product

Job Seeker

Layoff

Victim

First

Timer

Recruiter

System Admin

External

Recruiter

Internal

Recruiter

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Decide who’s using• As a team, agree on the user roles to be used for your product

• Remember to:

1. Brainstorm the initial set

2. Organize the initial set into similar roles

3. Consolidate the roles

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4. Refining the roles• Who is the user?

• What primary activities and

common tasks does the user

perform?

• What activities waste their time?

• In what settings will they use the

product?

• How frequently will they use the

product?

• What is the general goal for using

the product?

• What is the general proficiency

with software and computers?

• What is their level of domain

expertise?

User Role: Internal

Recruiter

Not particularly

computer-savvy, but

quite adept at using the

Web. Will use the

software infrequently but

intensely. Will read ads

from other companies to

figure out how best to

word her ads. Ease of

use is important, but

more importantly what

she learns must be easily

recalled months later.

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Refine who’s usingAs a team, create a detailed definition for 3 of the user roles

identified.

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Common User Role mistakesThe “Elasti-user“

• A user role that has not been defined in sufficient detail

• Can “bend” the user role to any situation

Splitting user roles according to tasks

• Results in a large number of user roles that can only be

used in specific scenarios e.g. Payment Authorizer

The “Buyer”

• Defining a user role for the person who will be

purchasing the system

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personais a type or archetype that

describes in a realistic fashion key attributes, behaviours and

attitudes of your users

*is not a synonym for “user”

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Why personas?

•Conversation starter

•Get rid of generic user/generic customer

•Bring users to life and make them “sticky”

•Get people to focus

•Shift from feature bucket to user-centered

design

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How to identify personas – Jeff Paton

1.

Identify types of

users

2.

Profile user types

3. Personify user types

4.

Identify product design impact

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Persona templates

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Persona templates

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Persona templates

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Persona examples

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Beware of “False Goals”• Save memory

• Save keystrokes

• Run in a browser

• Be easy to learn

• Safeguard data integrity

• Speed up data entry

• Increase program execution efficiency

• Use cool technology or features

• Increase graphic beauty

• Maintain consistency across platforms

I really don’t care

about this stuff!

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Create a pragmatic personaAs a team, create one pragmatic persona for your product

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Common Persona mistakesThe Generic Persona

• Traits common to most users

• Trying to be everything to everyone

Personas that separate

• Real user ignored in favour of persona

• Insufficient market and demographic

research done

More than 3 primary personas

• You are trying to do too much at once

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extreme personais a persona laying on the edge

of your user base

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Use extreme persona to write user storiesAs a team, think of a feature your extreme persona desires, that might be

valuable to other users. Write a user story for it.

As a <persona>

I want <functionality>

So that <benefit>