July 2, 2008

1. Using Personas to Create User-centered Designs Allison Bloodworth, Senior User Interaction Designer, Educational Technology Services, University of California - Berkeley July 2, 2008

2. Agenda • What is user-centered design? • What are personas? • Gathering data about users • Creating personas • Using personas in the design & development process

3. What is user-centered design? • User-centered design is a product developmentmethodology based on actual user needs, behaviors, abilitiesandperceptions. • User-centered design is used by UC Berkeley because it offers the most effective path to useful and usable products. • Personas put a human face on the amorphous “user” because they are based on actual user needs. They save time by focusing development toward real use cases and away from unlikely “edge” cases.

4. User-centered design at Berkeley • Focuses on understanding: • Who are the users? • What are their goals? • Goals drive a person’s actions • Tasks are things a person does in order to accomplish his goals • What are their pain points? • What are their motivations? • To drive system definition & design

5. Why focus on user goals vs. (current) tasks? • “The way people do things today is often merely the product of the obsolete systems and and organizations they are forced to interact with, and typically bear little resemblance to the way they would like to do things, or they way they would be most effective.” • About Face 3.0 • Just putting existing processes on-line often is not enough • Improving processes is often the best way help users achieve their goals

6. User-centered design at Berkeley • User Research • Modeling • Requirements Definition • UI Framework Definition • UI Design • Development Support  User Research Modeling  Requirements Definition  UI Framework Definition  UI Design  Development Support

7. User-centered design at Berkeley  User Research Modeling  Requirements Definition  UI Framework Definition  UI Design  Development Support

8. User-centered design at Berkeley  User Research Modeling  Requirements Definition  UI Framework Definition  UI Design  Development Support

9. User Research • Ethnography and empathic research • Observation & interviews • Study users in their context • Centered on users’ goals and activities • Look for patterns User ResearchModeling  Requirements Definition  UI Framework Definition  UI Design  Development Support

10. Modeling • Make sense of research findings • Personas • Mental models • Use cases - current or future processes • Use case frequency matrix • Activity diagrams - more complex processes • Artifact models • Helps gain consensus early on…before any design happens • Provides shared language & vision  User Research Modeling Requirements Definition  UI Framework Definition  UI Design  Development Support

11. Persona: Michael the Moderately Seasoned Professional Source: Todd Warfel "Data Driven Personas”: http://www.slideshare.net/toddwarfel/data-driven-personas  User Research Modeling Requirements Definition  UI Framework Definition  UI Design  Development Support

12. Requirements Definition • Refined based on: • User needs • Business goals • Customer needs • Context Scenarios • New processes, context of use • How users complete an activity  User Research Modeling Requirements Definition UI Framework Definition  UI Design  Development Support

13. Scenarios • A design technique used to envision future use of a system • Focusing on how users can achieve their goals • Helps designers & developers understand how system will really be used • A story about a particular persona interacting with the system • May be based on a use case, or a set of use cases • Can be used for usability testing • Scenarios become progressively more detailed  User Research Modeling Requirements Definition  UI Framework Definition  UI Design  Development Support

14. Types of Scenarios • Context Scenarios • High-level, no interaction details • Focus is on how the user can achieve her goals • Part of Requirements Definition phase • Key path scenarios • Incorporate functional and data needs into the scenarios • Part of the next phase: UI Framework Definition phase  User Research Modeling Requirements DefinitionUI Framework Definition UI Design  Development Support

15. Example Scenarios • Context Scenario • Lisa is in lecture and realizes she’s confused when the instructor starts talking about mitosis. She takes note of the time. • Later that day she opens up her bSpace course site and goes directly to the webcast for that day and reviews the portions of lecture via the webcast she needed clarification on. • Key Path Scenario • Lisa is in lecture and realizes she’s confused when the instructor starts talking about mitosis. She takes note of the time. • Later that day she opens up her bSpace course site clicks on the “Most Recent Webcast” link.bSpace switches to the “Use Webcast” View and the webcast for the day plays. • Lisa looks at her notes to see the time she noted earlier, and enters it into the “Lecture Time” field and presses “Enter.” The lecture jumps forward to the point where the instructor was talking about mitosis.

16. UI Framework Definition • High level design • What pages do we have? • What panes need to exist within the pages and how do they work together? • What design elements are included in each page, pane, etc.? • Should be a holistic view of the design, not too detailed • Key path scenarios • Allows for iterating on the details • Start talking about technical feasibility  User Research Modeling  Requirements Definition UI Framework Definition UI Design  Development Support

17. UI design “Design is the conscious and intuitive effort to impose meaningful order” • Interaction design AND visual design • How does it behave? • What does it look like? • How does it make users feel? • Wireframes, mock-ups, and/or prototypes  User Research Modeling  Requirements Definition UI Framework DefinitionUI Design Development Support

18. Development Support • Constant communication • No throwing it over the wall • Continuous iterations as we learn more from development  User Research Modeling  Requirements Definition  UI Framework Definition  UI Design Development Support

19. What are personas? • Basic definition • “A persona is a user archetype you can use to help guide decisions about product features, navigation, interactions, and even visual design.” - Kim Goodwin, Cooper • User models • Models can consolidate complex information into an (easy to remember) abstraction • Remembering & making sense of all the raw data would be impossible without them  User Research Modeling Requirements Definition  UI Framework Definition  UI Design  Development Support

20. Persona: Sarah Windsor, Overwhelmed Faculty From: http://wiki.fluidproject.org/display/fluid/Sarah+Windsor+-+Primary+Persona Source: Sakai From: http://wiki.fluidproject.org/display/fluid/Sarah+Windsor+-+Primary+Persona  User Research Modeling Requirements Definition  UI Framework Definition  UI Design  Development Support

21. Persona do’s and don’ts • Should: • be based on user research • be based primarily on qualitative research • be focused on users’ goals • be based on common behavior patterns • be specific to your design context or problem • come to life, and seem like real people • Should not: • be focused on stereotypes or generalizations • be an ‘average’ of observed behavior patterns • be based only on user roles • be based only on information gathered from subject matter experts, as they cannot completely represent end users  User Research Modeling Requirements Definition  UI Framework Definition  UI Design  Development Support

22. Why use personas? • Focus • Empathy • Gaining consensus • Avoiding the elastic user  User Research Modeling Requirements Definition  UI Framework Definition  UI Design  Development Support

23. Why use personas? • Focus • Designing for too many different types of users makes a product too complex to truly satisfy any of them • Pleasing some users often conflicts with pleasing others--must have a way to make choices • Helps prevent focusing the design on: • edge cases • averages  User Research Modeling Requirements Definition  UI Framework Definition  UI Design  Development Support

24. Why use personas? • Empathy • People are wired to be attuned to other people • Helps put yourself in the users’ shoes • Helps avoid self-referential design • Facilitates the use of role playing to: • make design decisions • evaluate designs  User Research Modeling Requirements Definition  UI Framework Definition  UI Design  Development Support

25. Why use personas? • Gaining consensus • Give the team a shared understanding (early on!) of who they users are and what they need • Without personas, the team may be disagreeing about who the users are, rather than actual design decisions, without even knowing it • Gives the team a tool to reason through design decisions  User Research Modeling Requirements Definition  UI Framework Definition  UI Design  Development Support

26. Why use personas? • Avoiding the elastic user • If the users haven’t been clearly defined, they may stretch to fit the needs of the product team • “Our students are very tech-savvy, and will certainly be able to figure that out.” • “Students just won’t be able to understand how to do this. We need to create a wizard.”  User Research Modeling Requirements Definition  UI Framework Definition  UI Design  Development Support

27. Types of personas • Design Personas • User Personas (most common) • Customer/Buyer Personas • Served Personas • Negative Personas • Provisional Personas • Other types of Personas • Marketing Personas • Strategy Personas • Organization Personas  User Research Modeling Requirements Definition  UI Framework Definition  UI Design  Development Support

28. Personas usually contain… • Goals • Attitudes (related to your context) • Behaviors & Tasks (in your context) • Photo • Name • Tagline • Demographic info • Skill level • Environment • Scenarios  User Research Modeling Requirements Definition  UI Framework Definition  UI Design  Development Support

29. Types of personas • Primary persona • A persona whose needs must be satisfied • Multiple primary personas require separate interfaces • Secondary, tertiary, etc. personas • Personas whose needs should be considered after those of the primary persona(s) • A persona is made secondary because their needs can be mostly met if the design is focused on the primary persona  User Research Modeling Requirements Definition  UI Framework Definition  UI Design  Development Support

30. Primary Persona: Ernest the Engaged Employee “Work is important, but not my whole life.” Personal Information Profession: Data Architect Age: 43 Background: Originally from upstate New York Education: BS in Library Science from Columbia. Is continuing his education informally, by sitting in on classes at UC Berkeley’s School of Information whenever he can. Attends industry conferences about once a year. UCB Background: “Fell” into a technical position at UC Berkeley 8 years ago after working in libraries. Home Life: Has been married for 15 years and has two children, ages 6 and 13. Their family has a pet Cockatoo. He is interesting in volunteering some time at his 6-year-old’s Montessori School in Berkeley. Hobbies: Photography (learning Photoshop) Personality: Efficient, detail-oriented, dedicated. Enjoys meeting new people and learning about them. User Goals • To be as efficient as possible at work so he can spend as much quality time with his family as possible • To make more money • To continue to learn • To improve his photography & perhaps make it more of a business Pain Points • After the IST re-org, some processes have been unclear, and he’s often had to hunt around for the right person to get things done. • Too many passwords to remember • Too many collaborative tools being used in organization • Information he needs is all over the place, not organized efficiently Site Objectives • Help Ernest find the information he needs quickly & easily • Clarify the IST/OCIO information available instead of adding just another site to the confusion • Help Ernest learn about and connect with the IST/OCIO community  User Research Modeling Requirements Definition  UI Framework Definition  UI Design  Development Support

31. Sakai Persona Map From: http://bugs.sakaiproject.org/confluence/display/ENC/Sakai+Personas  User Research Modeling Requirements Definition  UI Framework Definition  UI Design  Development Support

32. Methods used for gathering information for personas • User observation • Contextual inquiries • Interviews • Focus groups • Diary studies • Existing data • Existing knowledge User ResearchModeling  Requirements Definition  UI Framework Definition  UI Design  Development Support

33. How are personas created? • Persona hypothesis • User research • Identify behavioral variables/attributes • Persona scales • Choose personas • Write personas • Communicate personas User ResearchModeling Requirements Definition  UI Framework Definition  UI Design  Development Support

34. Persona hypothesis • A starting point to help determine what types of users to research • Created before talking to end users • Based on information gathered from stakeholders, SME’s, your personal knowledge, and review of existing literature • Hypothesized behavior patterns • Should not be based purely on demographics • Differentiate users based on needs and behaviors • More user types can be added later if research points to other types • Often map to roles in a non-consumer domain (e.g. education) • Can be just a rough outline/list of user goals & behavior patterns you expect to see User ResearchModeling  Requirements Definition  UI Framework Definition  UI Design  Development Support

35. Fluid CM research: User behavior/characteristic matrices • User types (Roles) • Application (CMS) use • Class structure • Group size • Technical level • Country/region • Type of institution From: http://wiki.fluidproject.org/x/vgIa User ResearchModeling  Requirements Definition  UI Framework Definition  UI Design  Development Support

36. User research • Interview & observe users in the context of their work • Use focus structure document to guide each user visit • Take detailed notes & photos • Capture interesting quotes • Use symbols in notes to organize info • Process ‘raw’ notes into a more categorized & synthesized format • Create summaries of notes User ResearchModeling  Requirements Definition  UI Framework Definition  UI Design  Development Support

37. Raw notes • Works both at home and in her (very organized) office; carries her PC back and forth • Seminar: posts multiple discussion questions each week, has students respond to 1 each week. Part of participation grade which is 25% of their total grade. - Would like students to have a one stop shop where they can get all info for her class: website, bSpace, Library Resources - Throughout the semester she puts all her grades in Excel; she has mostly quizzes and exams, and only has a few assignments • Wants to be able to save copies of files having to do with students on her local drive • Helpful info if students ask for recommendations later - She’s usually only a week ahead of the class in her preparation, which may change in the future when she’s taught the class more User ResearchModeling  Requirements Definition  UI Framework Definition  UI Design  Development Support

38. Categorized Notes - Content Management • Typical/Good/Bad day • Course Details • Schedule/Organization • General CMS/LMS use & activities • Types of course materials • Communication • Content Reuse • Photos • Interview/Observation Setup • Persona Info (personal details) • Context of work • Teaching style/format • Computer/Technology use • Use cases/Activities • Pain points/Opportunities/Time wasters • User goals User ResearchModeling  Requirements Definition  UI Framework Definition  UI Design  Development Support

39. Identify variables • Personas should be based on observed behavior patterns • Identify the behavioral variables which differentiate your interviewees • Two by two comparison - UIE.com method • Read two randomly chosen summaries • List attributes that make interviewees similar & different • Replace one of the summaries with another randomly chosen one • Repeat until all summaries are read • Choose endpoints of scales  User Research Modeling Requirements Definition  UI Framework Definition  UI Design  Development Support

40. Persona scales Distinctions • Roles • Support running class • Timing of posting materials • Primary type of communication • Number of computers • Overall goal • change the field • teach students • get published • Previous LMS use • Years teaching • Years at current institution • Large, small or both classes • Discipline From: http://wiki.fluidproject.org/display/fluid/Content+Management+Research+Models  User Research Modeling Requirements Definition  UI Framework Definition  UI Design  Development Support

41. Choose personas • Determine list of potential personas based on common behavioral patterns • Sanity check • Do they make sense? Do they reflect what we’ve seen? Are there too many to be useful? Will they help us make design decisions? • Finalize initial persona list  User Research Modeling Requirements Definition  UI Framework Definition  UI Design  Development Support

42. Write personas • Draft persona characteristics & goals for each persona • If possible, all info should come from actual user research (your notes) • All persona information should be relevant to your design context • Check persona set • Anything missing? • Any redundant personas? • Write the persona descriptions • Some bulleted lists, some narrative • You may have multiple formats depending on your team’s needs • A few personal details OK • Try to relate them to your design • Add them last • Choose primary, secondary, etc. persona(s)  User Research Modeling Requirements Definition  UI Framework Definition  UI Design  Development Support

43. Fluid Content Management Personas Instructor Personas Ahmad Yousef (Faculty - Tenure-track History) George McFadden (Online Instructor - Journalism) Ahmad Yousef (Faculty - Tenure-track History) George McFadden (Online Instructor - Journalism) Henry Sibley (Longtime Faculty - Chemistry) Catalina De Silva (Faculty - GSI Manager in Spanish) Sergio Rossi (Graduate Teaching Assistant - Urban Affairs & Planning) Stacey Pearson (Graduate Teaching Assistant - Biochemistry) Robin McCoy (Faculty - Business School) From: http://wiki.fluidproject.org/display/fluid/Content+Management+Research+Models  User Research Modeling Requirements Definition  UI Framework Definition  UI Design  Development Support

44. Fluid Content Management Personas Student Personas Christy Gonzola (Undergraduate Student - Molecular & Cell Biology) Ashley Myles (Undergraduate Student - Acheology) Shaina Wiseman (Graduate Student - Land Development) Andy Wright (Graduate Student - Information Studies) From: http://wiki.fluidproject.org/display/fluid/Content+Management+Research+Models  User Research Modeling Requirements Definition  UI Framework Definition  UI Design  Development Support

45. Fluid Content Management Personas Instructional Support Staff Personas Michael Demsky (Departmental Support - Biology) Anita Stalmach (Departmental Pedagogy Support - Instructional Designer) From: http://wiki.fluidproject.org/display/fluid/Content+Management+Research+Models  User Research Modeling Requirements Definition  UI Framework Definition  UI Design  Development Support

46. Stacy Pearson - TA Trainer/ Graduate Teaching Assistant • Characteristics • Lives in the suburbs, about 40 minutes outside the city by car, with her parents • Is a 3rd year PhD student with a specialty in Biochemistry, and has been TAing since 2004 • Comes in everyday at 6:30am and spends all day on campus until around 5pm. She does most of the work on campus, in the lab and in her office, and none at home. • She coordinates the TA training program where she trains TAs through the office of Teaching Advancement. With other coordinators, she organizes workshops for TAs on how to teach students. • She uses Blackboard as a TA but is not a huge fan. She only login when she gets an email notification with important announcements. • She uses a highly paper-based file organization system. She prints out course materials and organizes them into binders in chronological order. • If she needs to take files home, she emails her files to her Yahoo account. • Goals • Get her PhD • Become a better teacher • "I'm all manual. Papers, folders, and binders.” • Main Points: • Uses physical folders, binders, and drawers to organize her reading materials • Teaches TAs how to teach students • Concerned about Mac-PC compatibility when transferring files • Frustrated that she doesn't have access to the LMS her students are using From: http://wiki.fluidproject.org/x/fY4  User Research Modeling Requirements Definition  UI Framework Definition  UI Design  Development Support

47. Communicate personas • Introductory workshop • Posting one or two page summaries in work areas • Laminated sheet containing short summaries of all personas • Persona deck of cards • Have everyone put a persona on their door to represent who they identify with • Set up a work area for a persona  User Research Modeling Requirements Definition  UI Framework Definition  UI Design  Development Support

48. Persona Resources • Books • About Face 3.0 • The Persona Lifecycle • Practical Personas: The User Is Always Right • Presentations • UIE's Building Robust Personas in 30 Days or Less: http://www.uie.com/events/virtual_seminars/building_personas/ • "data driven design research personas:" http://www.slideshare.net/toddwarfel/data-driven-design-research-personas • "The user is always right: Making Personas Work for Your Site:" http://www.slideshare.net/MulderMedia/the-user-is-always-right-making-personas-work-for-your-site • Articles • Building a data-backed persona: http://www.boxesandarrows.com/view/building-a-data • Personas vs. User Descriptions: http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2007/11/15/personas-vs-user-descriptions-apples-vs-tomatoes/

49. Questions? • Let’s talk during the conference! • Check out the Fluid UX Toolkit: http://wiki.fluidproject.org/display/fluid/UX+Toolkit • Contact info: • Allison Bloodworth, University of California, Berkeley: abloodworth@berkeley.edu

50. Persona Example: Matthew Johnson, USDA Senior Manager Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Economic Research Service (ERS), http://www.usability.gov/analyze/personas.html  User Research Modeling Requirements Definition  UI Framework Definition  UI Design  Development Support