Projects/Usability/HIG/Persona: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 20:08, 28 January 2014

Purpose

A persona is the representation of a virtual user, based on empirical data. The description includes a concise summary of characteristics of the user, their experience, goals and tasks, pain points, and environmental conditions. Personas describe the target users, giving a clear picture of how they're likely to use the system, and what they’ll expect from it.

The advantage of personas is a common understanding among the development team and the dissociation from each contributor's personal point of view. In contrast to alternative methods like lead user(s) (usually the developer him-/herself), a panel of real users or a description per sociological milieus, personas are more representative, faster to access, and easier to understand.

Guidelines

Always define personas based empirical data.
Add enough information to establish a good impression of the target user, but do not write a novel and stay concise.
Common elements are: name, job titles and major responsibilities, demographics such as age, education, ethnicity, and family status, goals and tasks they are trying to complete using the application, physical, social, and technological environment.
Add a quote that sums up what matters most to the persona and a casual picture representing that user group.
Discriminate between primary (the basic user) and secondary (additional users) persona. If it makes sense, describe the group of users that is explicitly not supported by a anti-persona. Respect the law of parsimony and have as few personas as possible.
Make sure your persona can act in different scenarios.

Best Practice

Try to use the predefined KDE personas.

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 A ''persona'' is the representation of a virtual user, based on empirical data. The description includes a concise summary of characteristics of the user, their experience, goals and tasks, pain points, and environmental conditions. Personas describe the target users, giving a clear picture of how they're likely to use the system, and what they’ll expect from it.
-The advantage of persona is a common understanding over the development team and the dissociation from the personal point of view. In contrast to alternative methods like lead user(s) (usually the developer itself), a panel of real users or a description per sociological milieus, persona are more representative, faster to access, and easier to understand.
+The advantage of personas is a common understanding among the development team and the dissociation from each contributor's personal point of view. In contrast to alternative methods like lead user(s) (usually the developer him-/herself), a panel of real users or a description per sociological milieus, personas are more representative, faster to access, and easier to understand.
 == Guidelines ==
-* Always define persona on ground of empirical data.
+* Always define personas based empirical data.
-* Add enough information to establish a good impression of the target user. But do not write a novel and stay concise.
+* Add enough information to establish a good impression of the target user, but do not write a novel and stay concise.
 * Common elements are: name, job titles and major responsibilities, demographics such as age, education, ethnicity, and family status, goals and tasks they are trying to complete using the application, physical, social, and technological environment.
-* Add a quote that sums up what matters most to the persona and a casual pictures representing that user group.
+* Add a quote that sums up what matters most to the persona and a casual picture representing that user group.
 * Discriminate between primary (the basic user) and secondary (additional users) persona. If it makes sense, describe the group of users that is explicitly not supported by a anti-persona. Respect the law of parsimony and have as few personas as possible.
 * Make sure your persona can act in different [[Projects/Usability/HIG/Scenario|scenarios]].