User Description Template - Personas, Tasks, Scenarios, Workflows

Objective Digital Pty Ltd

User descriptionTechniques, guidelines, templates and examples


User description

Identify key user groups

Conduct task analysis

Create personas

Create scenarios

Develop a workflow

Techniques


Key user groups

• Market segmentation allows you to identify the different user types of your site. You can then focus on the groups that are most important to your business/website during the project.

• It is vital to identify what kinds of users you should focus on during a project to ensure you are developing a site for your users.

• A detailed description of the characteristics of each target group will allow for personas to be created and recruitment of participants who represent the target audience.


Market segmentation template

Picture Picture Picture


Market segmentation examples


Task analysis

What is task analysis?• Task analysis allows you to learn more about what users want to do on your site and the way they go about doing

this.

Why do task analysis?• Task analysis informs you what the website must offer, the scope of website content, the applications/functionality

on your site, navigation systems to support your users in reaching their goal and helps build individual pages that meet the users’ needs.

How to do task analysis?• There are a number of ways to conduct task analysis. Through conversations with internal stakeholders or

observing/talking to users, you can determine the set of goals that belong to each type of user.

• Sometimes it may be easier to think about the overall goal or high-level task and then break this into smaller sub-tasks.

• There are different levels of detail you can go into with task analysis. The questions you can ask are:– What is the overall goal users are trying to achieve on your website?

– What specific steps do users go through to reach their goal?

– What would be the most efficient way to achieve the goal from a users point of view and how does the current site match that process?


Task analysis example

Goal: ‘I want to buy a book off Amazon’

Individual tasks to reach goal:• Register/sign up• Locate book• Add to basket• Buy/checkout

Goal: ‘I want to start using Facebook’

Individual subtasks to reach goal:• Find the Facebook site• Sign up for a new Facebook account• Login to my Facebook account• Find friends through search• Add friends • Write on friends’ walls• Write messages to friends• Add photo albums• Tag photos• Create groups• Join groups• Etc.


Personas

What is a persona?• A persona is a description of a fictional person who represents a major customer base.

Why use personas?• Use personas as a design research tool. They provide a reference point for design decisions during a

project. They are a powerful way to communicate knowledge, activities, interests, influences, and goals.

How do I create a persona?• It helps to base them on someone you know which keeps them grounded and more realistic.

• Previous research such as interviews, surveys and focus groups can help you learn more about your customer base and the major user groups within this.

• A typical persona includes:– Name and picture

– Demographics (age, education, family status)

– Job title and main responsibilities

– Experience online, in the industry and with the site offering

– Goals and tasks in relation to your site

– A quote that sums up what matters most to the persona with relevance to your site


Persona template

Name - Brief description about the type of person‘User quote’

Demographics:• Age, education, family status

Occupation:• Description of job title and main responsibilities

Online experience:• Summarise online shopping experience

[Industry/Market] experience:• Summarise industry or market experience

Product/service experience:• Summarise product/service experience

Goals and tasks:• Summarise their goals and tasks in relation to your site

Computer savvy5 rating

Web savvy5 rating

Online shopping savvy5 rating

Rating: = inexperienced = very experienced

Photo


Persona example

Jane Smith – Leisure family traveler‘I want holidays to be both exciting for the kids and relaxing for the parents’

Demographics:•32, University degree, married with two children

Occupation:•Public primary school teacher responsible for a class of 25 x 6-year olds

Online experience:• Jane is very experienced in researching and purchasing online. She uses the

internet every day for work and personal use.

Holiday experience:•She has booked all of the family holidays online for the past 5 years. She feels this

has always been the cheapest option with the most flexibility.

Package holiday experience:• Jane has never booked a package holiday but is willing to try it as it is becoming

too time consuming booking everything separately, with two young kids.

Goals and tasks:•With the kids starting school, Jane wants to quickly find a package holiday

with enough to do for both the kids and adults.

Computer savvy

Web savvy

Online shopping savvy

Rating: = inexperienced = very experienced


Scenarios

What is a scenario?• A scenario is a short story about a user with a specific goal on your site. They cover the questions, tasks

and stories that users come to your site with. At the end of the day, your site must meet the needs described in these scenarios.

How detailed should a scenario be?• There are different levels of detail in which you can describe scenarios:

– Goal/task based scenarioA description of what the user wants to doEspecially useful for user testing scenarios/tasks

– Story scenario (user story)A story describing the user in more detail i.e. describing what is important to them, what their motivations and fears are and how they normally go about thingsEspecially useful for a web development team to allow them to develop a site appropriate for users


Scenario examples

Goal/task based scenario example:• You are interested to learn more about usability and want to buy a usability book from Amazon

Story scenario/user story example:• Mr. Steve Smith is a booklover and tends to buy his books in a bookstore as they are able to recommend

books he would be interested in. Steve is fairly new to using the Internet but as a quick learner is keen to use it more as he lives quite remotely and has little time to go to bookstores anymore. Someone told him about Amazon.com and as a booklover he is keen to find out more and use the site. He has never ordered anything online but trusts Amazon enough to start purchasing books here as long as it feels easy and safe. He is reluctant to give out his personal details online so he would want to know his data is kept safe and not used for marketing purposes.


Workflow

What is a workflow?• A workflow is the process or ‘flow’ of steps a user goes through within a website. • A workflow is also known as a flowchart.

Why use a workflow?• To document the process and the links between the process steps• To identify the actual and ideal path of a process flow• To identify problems and potential improvements to the user experience• Prior to designing the user interface, it is important to diagram the user experience as they navigate

through a site/program to make sure the process and steps are intuitive and logical from the users perspective.


Workflow symbols

Common workflow symbols:

Process symbolAny process, function, or action

Document symbolAny type of hard copy input or output such as a report

Off page symbolWhen a flowchart continues on another page. Often the page number is placed within the shape

Input/output symbolData that is available for input or resulting from processing i.e. database records

Decision symbolA question or branch in the workflow. A decision must be made and only one solution can be chosen

Magnetic disk (database) symbolA data storage location in the form of a database

Connector symbolTo show a jump from one point in the process flow to another. Usually labeled with capital letters to show matching jump points. Used to avoid crossing other flow lines and shapes or jump to a sub-processes in a separate area of the main flowchart

Terminator symbolShow the start and stop points in a process

Arrow symbolMaterial or information flow in the direction of the arrowhead. Always a single direction and single arrow


Workflow example

Search on keyword

Start on ebay.com.au

Read results

Select item

Place bid

End

Place bid?

Yes

No

High-level eBay example of finding an item and placing a bid.

User Description Template - Personas, Tasks, Scenarios, Workflows

Documents

Transcript of User Description Template - Personas, Tasks, Scenarios, Workflows