Homework — Assignment 7
If your case study involves creating personas, you might develop a questionnaire to help you identify and sort different kinds of users. Or you might imagine a couple of different kinds of users and then develop a questionnaire to verify or deny your imaginings. If you go this route, share your plans and your draft questionnaire(s) with the class.
If you aren’t yet ready to directly engage your case study, here’s an alternative assignment.
AI Persona Experiment
A. Why do we need to know about users?
According to Observing the User Experience, the author believes that
- The users we actually have are different from those we imagined having
- Our users are not all the same.
So personas, correctly developed and used, are the most valuable to have before we start developing anything: a product or service, a redesign, a new feature set, or a new identity. They can also help in introducing an existing product or service to a new market.
B． What is a persona?
According to Personas- A Simple Introduction, personas are fictional characters, that we create based on our research to represent the different user types that might use our service, product, site, or brand in a similar way.
As described in 2005 by designer Kim Goodwin, “A persona is a user archetype you can use to help guide decisions about product features, navigation, interactions, and even visual design.” This “archetype” is not a real person, but a synthesis of facts and observations about real users that lead to a memorable character.
C. Why do we need a persona?
- By creating these characters and taking them through scenarios, UX designers and stakeholders can gain a sense of familiarity and empathy with the users. Creating personas can help us understand our users’ needs, experiences, behavior, and goals. It can help us step out of ourselves, and help us recognize that different people have different needs and expectations.
- It can also help us identify with the user we are designing for.
- Personas make the design task at hand less complex, they guide our ideation process, and they can help us to achieve the goal of creating a good user experience for our target user group. Few companies these days develop anything without identifying a target market, and many also create market segmentations. However, because we can identify a market segment doesn’t mean we know how to design for the people in it. Creating personas can help us have good design as great design comes from understanding our user‘s behaviors. Personas, unlike market segments, represent goals and behavior patterns, not demographic attributes or job responsibilities.
- Persona can assist design in serving as a shared reference point. Over time, they can even function as an efficient shorthand. Rather than describing a feature with long sentences, we can say “it’s for ***” . “***” represents a shared understanding of a class of user experience issues that are important to the success of the product.
D. How to do it？
- Research for Personas
1). Internal interviews.
If we work as a UX designer in a company, we can conduct a few short one-on-one interviews with stakeholders, experts, the people who work directly with the product like salespeople, support staff, market researchers, technical sales consultants and trainers.
What distinct types of users have they observed, if any?
What impacts do they see various user types having on their work or on the business?
2). Research with participants
Most of the data we draw upon on create personas should come from qualitative research with individual users or potential users. Structure the interviews or field visits around people’s entire experience with our product or service, not around specific tasks. In recruiting participants, we should represent the entire range of our target user base. While interviewing, keep a list of good quotations, problems, and anecdotes.
3). Market research review.
In a company, sales and marketing often have detailed demographic profiles and market research that can give our big picture breakdowns of our audience. If we have a market segmentation, especially one that draws upon usage data or other behavioral data, it’s worth consulting. But don’t just make personas that reinforce market segments.
4). Usage data and customer feedback review.
Consult customer forums or community sites by the company or others can support systems for frequent user questions and problems, which can provide supporting data for making this information part of our personas.
We can also create provisional personas.
- Creating Personas
Analyze the Data
What do the people have in common?
Are there problems that seem to crop up frequently?
Are there shared aspirations?
Then make a list of the important ways in which users vary.
Look for patterns in our interviews and usage data and consider what aspects of our users tend to drive their goals and needs. First, find attributes that matter to the selection and use of our product. Then identify those that distinguish different subsets of users from each other.
- Prioritize attributes and patterns
From our data, we will likely see a number of patterns that could turn into persona. We need to decide which attributes are the most important to us. If we have the time, review the factors with stakeholder experts outside of the research team. If we don’t have the time, use market research reviews and usage data reports to guide an initial cut.
- Define our personas
We need to draw upon the personal details and anecdotes we observed in our research to synthesize realistic people from the clusters of attributes.
Don’t be afraid to go with our gut in creating the personas and telling their stories.
In some cases, adding details is as straightforward as creating a specific “fact” that falls within an attribute range we have defined.
1). Don’t create wacky idiosyncrasies. Strange features tend to distract from the important attributes. If there are attributes that all personas have in equal measure, we don’t make our persona an Olympic-class ice skater. If there are attributes that all personas have in equal measure, we don’t need to describe them in each persona. We need enough detail for realistic, memorable personas, but don’t load them up with information that is not relevant.
2). Flesh out the rest of the attributes, using materials gathered from our interviews. We may want to write a little story about it, incorporating details drawn from similar users.
3). Complete the persona by creating a story tying all the attributes together, highlighting the problems and anxieties.
NB:
we should not have too many personas. One good rule of thumb is to have one persona per main organizational role or customer type. We present multiple personas, and prepare a one-page or one-slide explanation of how the personas represent different combinations of attributes.
To get the full benefit from the process, the personas need to remain in use.
They should be documented, shared, updated, and used in everyday product development.
- Prioritize
Not all personas are equally important, so the group should prioritize them.
- Document
The document we create must reflect the needs and concerns of its audience.
A basic persona contains the following elements:
1). The name of the persona
2). A description of the person’s needs and aspirations for the product or service
3). The persona’s immediate goals in using that product or service
4). His or her abilities and experience
5). His or her perspective on the task and the product.
6). A portrait is the final element. We can pick a picture that is fun and can be a good way to wrap up a long brainstorming session. Find a source of stock photos (We can get one from a stock photo website such as https://www.gettyimages.com/ )
NB:
Don’t choose any images that might trigger negative reactions or be controversial.
Never use pictures or names of people we know when creating a persona.
Or, for that matter, never base a persona on someone we know personally. It’s distracting and restrictive when it is time to change the persona.
- Share
Summarize the personas in an easily usable form. In a company, we can create a one-page snapshot version of our personas, introduce them in an introduction meeting, create posters with the picture and key attributes of the user, and tack them to walls.
- Develop with Personas
1). Personas can serve as bases for recruiting screeners. Or we can think about how features work for the various personas
2). We can get people thinking in terms of personas by using the persona names in our documentation and specs.
3). Use personas to evaluate our competitors. Use a competitor’s product and try to determine which persona it’s creating for. Try to identify how our personas would use it. Whom would the sites be attractive to? Why? Where do they succeed? Where do they fail?
- Regularly Update
Personas should be sanity-checked and updated on a regular basis.
- Build Characters, Not Stereotypes
1). Don’t give our personas too catchy names which will make the users have different associations.
While personas are fictional characters, they should be sympathetic enough to unite a team in designing for them. Associate our personas with cliches and stereotypes undercuts this function.
For example, it may seem like a good idea to give our personas catchy names like “Jeff Toolbelt” or “Dutiful Doris.” It’s true that these types of names are evocative and memorable. But they also invoke people’s preexisting associations with certain phrases and images. Since we are not a mind reader, we cannot predict what those associations will be. For all we know, the associations might be negative, disrupting any empathy we are trying to build. And worse, since people will have different associations our catchy names might actually create disagreement instead of unifying people.
2). Don’t find photographs that look like models in generic stock-photo poses.
We should try to find photos that look like ordinary people going about their lives. It’s better to use an illustration than a photograph that looks fake. That’s why we gave Jeff and Doris names that sound like real people and gave Jeff a photograph that looks like a snapshot taken by a friend.
- Connect Personas to Action
1). Rewrite our personas around needs.
2). Use personas to guide team design brainstorms.
3). Link together personas with design scenarios to start organizing and prioritizing that brainstormed functionality. However, be careful not to introduce design requirements or proposed functionality into the persona itself. The purpose of the persona is to inspire multiple design concepts, not document one or two.
- Don’t let Personas stand alone.
Personas should be used alongside scenarios, experience models, task analyses, and traditional written reports.
E．My personas for the pick-up Chinese food ordering service website（created by Claude.ai）
- Create a persona with a name, needs, goals and pain points for a pick-up Chinese food ordering service website in Atlanta for 1 Chinese client (19-year-old female freshman who is a picky eater）
Name: Meimei
Demographics:
19 years old
Female
Chinese international student
Freshman at Georgia Tech
Lives in campus dorm
Needs:
Quick and convenient meals that fit into her busy student schedule
Consistent, familiar flavors that appeal to her picky preferences
Easy ordering and fast pick-up options close to campus
Goals:
Find 2-3 go-to dishes she enjoys and can reliably reorder
Avoid veggies, spices, or ingredients that are too unfamiliar
Stick to affordable menu items that are filling but don’t break her budget
Pain points:
Feeling overwhelmed by large menus full of items she won’t try
Being unable to customize orders to her taste (e.g. no veggies)
Ordering something new that arrives but is unappetizing to her
- Create a persona with a name, needs, goals, and pain points for a pick-up Chinese food ordering service website in Atlanta for 1 Chinese client (a 25-year-old male worker who wants affordable dishes)
https://www.gettyimages.com/search/2/image?family=creative&phrase=a%2025%20Chinese%20worker
Name： Da Lee
Demographics:
25 years old
Male
Works as an accountant
Lives alone in an apartment complex
Needs:
Budget-friendly meal options under $15
Filling plates that satisfy hunger on a tight budget
Easy access to coupons and discounted combo plates
Goals:
Find affordable go-to orders for quick dinners after work
Maximize quantities and nutrients per dollar spent
Discover new low-cost dishes by experimenting with the menu
Pain points:
Menu items that seem overpriced for portion size
Missing out on deals or coupons due to disorganization
Treating himself to pricier plates once in a while but feeling guilty about it
- Create a persona with a name, needs, goals, and pain points for a pick-up Chinese food ordering service website in Atlanta for 1 American female client who loves to eat sweet and fried Chinese food.
Name: Amy Thompson
Demographics:
32 years old
Female
Works as a marketing manager
Lives alone downtown
Needs:
Quick access to Americanized Chinese dishes
Convenient ordering of her fried favorites
Options for sugary desserts and appetizers
Goals:
Satisfy cravings for bold, intense flavors
Discover new sweet, fried, or saucy menu items to try
Have meals delivered fast so she can relax after work
Pain Points:
Waiting a long time for delivery of indulgent cravings
Missing out on desserts or add-ons due to minimal menu browsing
Ordering dishes that are too spicy or intense for her comfort level
Useful Links:
- https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/article/personas-why-and-how-you-should-use-them
- https://www.gettyimages.com/
- https://claude.ai/chats