Re: [Usability] FLOSS Usability Testing Suite - persona work and status

[Charline <charline poirier canonical com>]

Kirk Bridger wrote:
> I've been working behind the scenes and have a rough draft of a first 
> persona for the proposed usability testing suite project.
>
> I wanted to pause before moving ahead with the other 3 personas to 
> make sure this is capturing the right data, and that they'll be useful 
> for the team involved to understand who uses the software and in what 
> way.
>
> I've uploaded Henri the Dabbler - take a look.
>
> http://live.gnome.org/UTSPersonas
>
> I'd love to hear feedback, more so on if this is capturing the right 
> level of detail than if he should be married or not (as an example).  
> I'll be putting together a summary of the data I collected so everyone 
> can see where I grabbed the demographic information from.  Until then 
> please trust me that the demographic data is a summary of the input I 
> received, and is not based on any particular person.
Personas:
What will these personas be used for?  Right now, you have defined them 
by their professions/activities.  Are you sure this is what will be most 
useful? 

I am asking this, because in design, we tend to create our personas on 
the basis of differences in mental models or behaviours.  We tried to 
avoid professions, because people from different professions might have 
the same mental model for a product and thus, what they expect and how 
they use it might be the same.  I would put them under the same persona. 
In reverse, people from the same occupation might behave very 
differently because of the way they approach their work and, 
consequently, their needs for design will be very different.

You should make sure that your personas capture the meaningful 
differences between within your project.

By the way, what data are you using to create these personas?

Description of Henri:
Henri is quite interesting but still feels a bit underdeveloped.  What 
might help would be to add Heni's goals - make sure you distinguish 
between end goals (what Henri ultimately wants to accomplish) and 
experiential goals (how Henri wants to feel while he is accomplishing 
the goal).  This will add some depth to your persona.  Another thing you 
can do to give Henri some substance, is to project what he will be doing 
in 5 years.  For example, Henri wants to become a usability expert (end 
goal).  Henri likes to feel that he is making constant progress and 
getting closer to his goal (experience goal).  In 5 years,  Henri will 
be giving invited lectures on remote usability testing in the open 
source community (projection in the future).

Don't forget the context surrounding Henri.  What elements of his 
context would impact his use of technology?  Henri spends a lot of time 
commuting and needs to work on the go?  In his job he is constantly 
interrupted?  He depends on his PA to know what meetings he has?  etc.

Another thing I would suggest:  don't mix needs with solutions.  I feel 
that it is very important to elaborate on the needs but to avoid 
proposing solutions.  Henri should inspire to create and innovate.  
Proposing specific solutions to needs does cut creativity a bit short.  
Keep in mind that there could be 20 solutions to a situation.  Your 
persona should highlight the needs and become the context in which a 
variety of solutions can be brainstormed by developers and designers.

Finally, I would keep the persona clean of any technology discussion or 
illustration because the persona should not be reduced to a few "user" 
behaviours.  Instead, present their enablers and barriers to adoption.  
You are creating a portrait.  This portrait should allow designers and 
developers to correctly infer many of the persona's behaviours that you 
don't have time or room to cover.
> This has been a quiet project, particularly since the hackfest and 
> Mairin's Design Hub idea.  I'd like to continue to work on this 
> project though, so send me your feedback, ideas and complaints about 
> Henri or any of the other proposed personas.
You definitely should continue.  This is a great!
> Thanks,
>
> Kirk
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Usability mailing list
> Usability gnome org
> http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/usability


--

*CHARLINE POIRIER*
*User Research Programme Lead*
*Canonical*
*27th floor, 21-24 Millbank Tower*
*London SW1P 4QP UK *

*Tel: +44 (0) 20 7630 2491*
*Mob: +44 (0) 78 8695 4514*
*www.Ubuntu.com <http://www.Ubuntu.com/> <http://www.Ubuntu.com/>*
*www.Canonical.com <http://www.Canonical.com/>*