Week 3 - Personas

Purpose:

As the book reminds us - WE ARE NOT THE USER. That may be especially hard for us to remember, since the users for our projects are most likely college students.

Personas have been an important component of user-centered design for many years. Designers disagree about the level of formality (you'll see examples in the readings), but they all agree that the user must be central to any design process. We will use a fairly simple (but useful) format.

This unit has two parts, with two due dates. Part I includes developing hypotheses (proto-personas) and interview questions. Part II includes performing the interviews and creating the actual personas.

Preparation:

Read:

• https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2014/08/a-closer-look-at-personas-part-1/
• https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2014/08/a-closer-look-at-personas-part-2/
• LeanUX chapter 3 pages 35-40

Please read these in their entirety! Specific sections will be referred to below, but the process will make more sense if you've read all of this ahead of time.

Part I - Proto Personas and Interview Questions

Part I will be done in a team meeting. As a group, create a proto-persona, in a format similar to figure 3-7. The authors describe (page 39) what to do with this proto-persona, but their process is a bit vague (imo), so we will use techniques described in the reading links.

The first link describes the general purpose and utility of personas. Look for questions on piazza about this topic. The second link describes persona creation in more detail. We will follow this process (simplified).

Review all the suggested questions (in 2. Decide What To Ask) and answer the following as a group:

1. Category Selection. Which categories (Overview, Domain Knowledge, Goals, Attitudes and Motivations, Processes, Environment, Pain Points, Tools and Technology, Mental Models, Relationships and Organization Structure, Projecting into the Future, Wrapping Up) will be most relevant for our project? Pick at least 3 (I found 5 that seemed useful).
   • NOTE: you are picking categories, not questions. The questions are examples and will almost certainly need to be modified. For example, it's likely you'll want to know about your users' goals... but the sample questions relate to goals on a job. Clearly you'll need to reword to relate to your project, such as "How would you describe a successful job search?" or "What improvement in your diet would you consider meaningful?"
2. Questions. Within each of your selected categories, come up with about 1-3 questions. These may relate to your proto-persona hypotheses, OR this exercise might spur more hypotheses/things you want to know.
   • Don't worry too much about categorizing each question... some questions might easily fit into either Goals or Attitudes, for example. The value of the categories is they encourage us to think more broadly about the user.
   • Remember to make your questions open-ended.
   • Don't ask about specific features or lead the users in directions that you think are correct. Challenge yourself - can you find ways that the users are NOT like you? Example: I use an app to track my hikes and bike rides... but I never share with anyone. If I designed such an app, it would clearly be a mistake to assume everyone is like me!
3. Extra Reflection. Pick two categories that are not relevant for our project. For each one, brainstorm what type of product might benefit from questions in that category (i.e., visualize yourself in a future job situation - how might questions in these categories shape your understanding in a way that significantly improves the product?) I encourage you to pick the two categories that seem least intuitive to you!

Questions #1 and #3 are intended to help you think more broadly about users. Question #2 is most directly relevant, as this will generate the list of questions for your interviews (part II). I will review these questions before you do the actual interviews.

Submit

Collect your proto-persona, questions and reflection answers into one document and email to me as a pdf. Please use subject line "PROJECT QUESTIONS" and cc all team members. I want to review your interview questions before you perform your interviews.

Part II - Personas

Step 1. As soon as I have critiqued your questions, you should conduct your interviews.

• Each team member should interview 2 potential users, with at least one being some major other than CS.
  • NOTE: If you were starting a business and wanted to interview a range of students, how would you recruit? If you set up a booth in the student center around lunch time, you could probably get as many interviewees as you want.
• Interviewees should be relevant. A freshman is probably not thinking about getting that first job, seniors and maybe juniors will be. A student who eats all meals with campus dining is unlikely to have much control over menu planning, so wouldn't be good for an app with recipes etc. (but that student might be relevant if your program monitors diet and exercise).
• It is recommended to have two team members at each interview, so one person can take notes. This is not required, but you do need to take and submit notes... so you'll need to be very organized if you do this solo. Remember that the questions should be open-ended, so the notes should capture the responses as fully as possible (paraphrasing is fine, as long as you don't alter the meaning).

Notes from each interview should be typed. Indicate who was present. NOTE: if you pick an interview subject who doesn't have much to say, you may want to do another interview (see evaluation criteria).

Step 2. Once all the interviews are complete, identify patterns in the data.

From the second link, review 5. Analyze The Data. Our process will not be as formal, but you should discuss all your interview answers and identify patterns (behavior variables).

Example (pretend data):

This example from the reading graphs the patterns (behavior variables) and shows where each interviewee falls. For our project, just create a list of as many patterns as you can identify (format similar to my examples). Put your list in a pdf.

Step 3. Based on patterns, identify two personas, one primary and the other secondary.

Example personas for my hike/bike app: the primary persona is motivated by peer pressure and wants to share their workouts. The secondary persona is just using the app for personal tracking.

Why do we have primary and secondary? Example: For the fitness app, it's very important to include features desired by the primary (e.g., tagging companions for workouts that are shared). The design should also consider the needs of the secondary persona (e.g., not requiring extra keystrokes for someone who just wants their own lists).

Step 4. Create the persona.

Now create the personas. You may use the persona template (figure 3-9, page 38) OR you might want to experiment with this format. Your personas should incorporate much of the data from your interviews.

Submit

Submit your interview notes, list of patterns/behavior variables, and both personas. Each of these will receive a separate grade. Zip all your .pdf files for submission.

Evaluation

As I read your submissions, I will be asking:

• Do the interviews provide good insight into what a user might want, their goals, and how they might use the product?
• Is the list of behavior variables reasonable, and derived from the interviews?
• Are the primary/secondary personas well chosen? i.e., are they derived from the interviews and do they vary in some relevant dimension(s)?
• Are the actual personas believable and comprehensive?

Separate grades will be recorded for Part I and Part II. Note that Part I is emailed, Part II is submitted on Canvas.