visualizations with empathy: developing audience personas
TRANSCRIPT
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
