The Persona ExpressRick Monro / @monro

First Name:

Live & work in:

Originally trained as:

Favourite city visited:

Best movie of all time:

The Persona Express | UX Scotland

draw a pic if you like

what you studied or qualified in

anywhere, near or far

where you call home

Make a simple trading card for yourself, we’ll come back to it later.

Depending on what you read, personas are either needless puffery...

...or a vital mainstay of an effective UX design process

personas = cheesy stock photography?

bulls**t personas = cheesy stock photography

Background• Both professionals – Jeremy and Karen• Jeremy works in insurance and Jane in a building society• They have 4 kids aged between aged between 3 and 12• Their kids are the centre of their lives

Demographics• Male and Female• 35 - 50• £130,000+ (combined salary)• Suburban

Qualities• Energetic, still “feel young”• Good balance between work and home life; enjoy the outdoors

but equally spend a lot of time on phone and email• Karen spends a lot of time out socialising and playing an active

role with the kids – swimming, football, drama• Jeremy is more involved with work and spends the weekend

catching up with the kidsDo people matching this even exist?

…it is more important that a persona be

precise than accurate ”“

The original source, “The Inmates Are Running The Asylum”, Alan Cooper 1998

a flight simulator for your designs when

they're still on paper ”“

...and another take on personas from SXSW 2012

the torment of the UXer.

*

* okay - mild discomfort

As UX professionals we are almost obliged to constantly question our own work

First Name:

Live & work in:

Originally trained as:

Favourite city visited:

Best movie of all time:

The Persona Express | UX Scotland

draw a pic if you like

what you studied or qualified in

anywhere, near or far

where you call home

Would you be happy to let someone make decision on your behalf, based on a trading card profile? Not unlike what we do in UX!

3 quick techniques to assist with user interviews and persona building

Techniques documented in Dave Gray’s excellent Gamestormingbut using abbreviated versions due to time constraints.

The Fishbowl• Based around simple discussion• Focus on active listening• Listen for key statements• Based on ideas from the Facilitator’s Guide to Participatory

Decision-Making• Output: 3 quotes that characterise your conversation with

an interviewee

“”Interviewing users, start high level and listen for key statements

Empathy Map• Attributed to Dave Gray

• Original using seeing, hearing, felling, thinking & doing

• Abbreviated version using 2 categories

• What scenarios are being described?

• Best questions for interviewee may not be obvious

Thinking

Doing

This uses active listening from last round, looking for scenarios

Pain/Gain Map

Pains

Gains

• Attributed to Dave Gray

• Sheds light on motivations & decisions

• More specific, precise findings

• Specific difficulties & challenges

• Points to solutions & opportunities

Getting increasingly specific now. What’s actionable from what you hear?

Outcomes

• How do the techniques affect conversations with interviewees?

• How do the answers change based on the outputs required?

• What technique produces the most useful information?

In a short space of time, with access to limited users, we can try various approaches and take learnings from each interview to inform the next. Try and then review results; ask things like:

Thank you!