Personas, scenarios, and user stories

From “huh?” to “how?”

Tallinn Winter School / Experimental Interaction Design 2014

Data

Primary

SecondarySupplementaryPoliticalNon-persona

Persona Scenario Use Cases

A-1

A2, A3...B1, B2, B3...

A1-a, AI-b

A2-a, A2-b...A3-a, A3-b...B1-a, BI-b...

UsersGoals

What will your product do?

Goals

Umm...?

I want to get from Paris to Berlin safely and efficiently.

1850’sI want to get from

Paris to Berlin safely and efficiently.

About Face 3, :The Essentials of Interaction Design (2007)

+

Goal Tasks

1850’s 2014I want to get from

Paris to Berlin safely and efficiently.

About Face 3, :The Essentials of Interaction Design (2007)

+ +

Goal Tasks

ExperiencegoalsFeeling/being, e.g.

Feel cool

Become admired

Remain focused

EndgoalsDoing, e.g.

Share a photo

Find a best deal

Do assignment Tasks

Tasks

Tasks

• Foundation for the design

• Ground for discussion

• A “reality check”

• Empathy

• Easier to relate (than to e.g. flow chart)

Why goals?EndgoalsDoing, e.g.

Share a photo

Find a best deal

Do assignment

Personas

I work with flora

About Face 3 (p. 78)

Gardeners

About Face 3 (p. 78)

I have a garden at home

I work at thebotanic center

I’m a landscape architecture

= raw data

I work with flora

Persona

• Describes imaginative users archetypes.

• Is based on the real research and observation. • Shows user goals and their behavior patterns

Does not substitute testing with and talking to the real people!

Example template, yours can look different!

Background Bio

Name, (age), occupation, education

Photo(s)Description

E.g. use environment or context, where the problem occurs and current solutions and frustrations.

Goals

• What are the user’s end goals?

• 2-4 end goals and 0-1 life goals is enough for this workshop

Mapping

E.g. computer skills, necessity vs fun, quality vs price.

Example template, yours can look different!

Petter Tamm

44, works at the botanic garden, father of two children

Goals

• Wants to manage bulk orderings more efficiently

• Is looking for quality reviews about new products

Reads reviews to find best...

quality price

As a lead gardener, Petter is responsible in ordering nutritions and specific soil for the plants for the city’s botanic garden. Currently he has to do bi-weekly orders over the phone from his office, calling manufacturers one by one.

Persona ≠ Stereotype Empathy and sensitivity to subjects vs.

biased caricatures.

Spanish studentMaria

Psychology studentIsabella

Before moving ondefine “what” of your project

What need does it serve?

Scenarios

Scenarios• Stories that help understand interactions

• A cheap way to illustrate design solution from user’s point of view

• Tell user’s goals, motivations and actions

“What should this product do?”

“How would user behave in this context?”

“What if...?”

It’s friday afternoon. Petter opens his desktop computer at the botanic center’s office. He wantsto be quickly done with the extra flower soil orders.

Petter decides to order the same combination of products as four weeks ago, but in smaller quantity. He does not order nutritions this time.

Petter is not interested in staying at the office long. As soon as the order is done, he leaves work to pick his daughter from school.

Context-based scenario

It’s friday afternoon. Petter opens his desktop computer at the botanic center’s office. He wantsto be quickly done with the extra flower soil orders.

Petter decides to order the same combination of products as four weeks ago, but in smaller quantity. He does not order nutritions this time.

Petter is not interested in staying at the office long. As soon as the order is done, he leaves work to pick his daughter from school.

Story background, settings Goal “quick extra orders”

Motivation: efficiencyHigh level actions

(e.g. re-ordering x with changes, not ordering y.)

• In what settings will the product be used?

• Is the persona frequently interrupted?

• With what other products will it be used?

• What primary activities does the persona need to perform to meet her goals?

• What is the expected end result of using the product?

User StoriesUse Cases

User Stories

A simple description template for the (one) goal the user wants to do with your product.

As a (role) I want to do (what),

so I can benefit (how).

As a touristI want to find the cheapest

public transport route from Airport to my Hotel

so I can save money.

User Stories

Epic / Saga user stories

Theme user stories Theme user storiesTheme user storiesTheme user stories

Theme user storiesTheme user stories

Adopted from Mike Cohn

User stories with clear conditions of satisfactions

Use Cases

A step-by-step description of one process, which helps the user (and other actors) to achieve a result.

Components: Use Case, Actors, Steps

Example

Use Case – Search of the cheapest public transport route. Actor – TouristSteps –

1. Specify “from” and “to” locations2. Select day and time of a) arrival or b) departure3. Show search results with the cheapest price first

Use Cases

As a side note...

Design issues

Elastic userSelf-

referential design

Fits opinions Inside jokes

Edge cases

Extremes

Today’s To Do

In your blog

1. Describe (1) primary persona

2. Write 1-2 scenarios based on persona’s goal

3. Write few user stories OR use cases based on the scenario(s)

Reference

• Cooper, A., Reinmann, R., Cronin, D. (2007). About Face 3: The Essentials of Interaction Design. England: Wiley

• Goodwin, Kim. 2001. “Perfecting Your Personas.” Cooper Newsletter, July/August.