Re: [Usability] Gnome Shell update and personas - focus or distraction?

[Allan Day <allanpday gmail com>]

> > I'm not familiar with the development of personas... are they supposed
> > to be representative of some kind of section of users?
> 
> 
> Personas are archetypes that don't necessarily map directly on to any  
> one 'real' user.  But the union of the personas you use on any one  
> project should, hopefully, be representative of that project's target  
> audience.
> 
> I'd recommend reading the blog entries at cooper.com about persona  
> development:
> <http://www.cooper.com/journal/personas/>
> 
> And here are a couple of persona-related podcasts I've listened to  
> recently, that were quite informative:
> <http://www.uxpod.com/index.php?post_id=160220>
> <http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2007/11/21/usability-tools-podcast-robust-personas/ 

Thanks Calum. I thought that was the way personas worked - the talk of
clustering was making me think cluster analysis...

One research technique that I've seen used very productivity in the
past, and which could be useful here, is the use of diaries. Basically,
you issue your research participants with a notepad and instructions
telling them to record their activities for a set amount of time. At the
end of the diary keeping period, you do interviews with the participants
within which you discuss the contents of the diaries. The nice thing is
that the diaries enable the participants show you what *they* think is
important.

One further possibility would be to combine participant generated images
with the diaries - either with digital cameras or just by taking
screenshots.

Allan