[IxDA Discuss] New IxD Techniques to Try in 2007

[Jim Drew]

>From: Teresa Torres <ttorres at stanfordalumni.org>
>
>> You design for the activity, not the user.
>
>This is the part I agree with. But you have to understand the  
>activity and you have to understand how a user approaches an  
>activity. I agree with Don Norman that a lot of the information in  
>personas is not critical. Do I need to know that Sally has 2 kids and  
>drives a Toyota? Probably not, unless those are directly tied to the  
>activity I am designing for.

How about indirectly tied?  If Sally drives a Land Rover LR2 (the brand new model) and has two teenage boys, ages 13 and 15, there's a heck of a lot you can infer about her income level, her buying habits, and what cultural artifacts her home revolves around.  I'm right now working on a project selling and serving digital content online, and those inferences can say a lot about how she (and her sons) would use our software, vs. Tom the 62 year old widower with a four year-old granddaughter and user of public transportation.

It's probably better to put more info in a persona than you expect to need than less.  Treat it like an iceberg rather than a cheap Western movie storefront: there should be a whole lot more under the surface/behind the facade, informing those using the persona without being spelled out to them.

-- Jim