[IxDA Discuss] A question about Personas

[Mark Schraad]

Todd has nicely outlined some of the more salient points... I just  
want to add a couple.

In addition to having your personae data driven, I find great value  
in validating them after they are formed.

Also - much like segmentation, where more value comes by grouping  
customers by desired attributes, so do personae. Do not make the  
mistake of grouping or architypeing based upon demographics. This is  
the slippery slope that marketing often gets caught in. You can,  
however, make this easier by tracking goals.

Mark


On Aug 21, 2007, at 1:00 PM, Todd Zaki Warfel wrote:

>
> On Aug 21, 2007, at 12:34 PM, Douglas Brashear wrote:
>
>> If there are real people backing them up, why not bag the personas
>> and just ask the...ahem...real people?
>
> We do. We use real people as one of the many inputs that provide the
> data for our data-driven personas. But unlike just one "ahem...real
> people" personas are representative of a particular audience. For us,
> we use multiple inputs. So, our personas come from multiple real
> people that fit that audience. And we continue to evolve them over
> time. So, as the product or service grows and evolves, we check in
> with our personas and the real people we based them off of.
>
>> At some point when you "documentize" someone's input, you make
>> inferences about them or what they would want. At some point in
>> your use of the persona it becomes detached from the thoughts,
>> needs, wants, capabilities and limitations of the actual target
>> audience representatives.
>
> Not in our shop they don't. That does happen in most cases, but not
> here. Again, this has to do with the evolutionary lifecycle of the
> persona - when done properly. They mature, just like real people.
> Ours do not become detached. If they're becoming detached, you're not
> doing them correctly.
>
>> Personas are often represented by Interactive Designers as "virtual
>> participants", but they fail to consistently yield fact-based
>> guidance for projects. At some point a leap is made that extends
>> the information in the persona too far to be directly tied back to
>> an actual user. Sometimes, by holding them up as these virtual
>> users, you can mistakenly set the expectations of your project
>> stakeholders too high.
>
> Again, this gets back to improper development, maturation, and use of
> personas. If you're doing them correctly, this shouldn't and doesn't
> happen.
>
>> Why not make cardboard "standees" too, and give them vices like
>> "smoker" or "compulsive gambler" too? ;-)
>
> While we haven't gone that far, we've come close. And I have spoken
> to others who have done this, or dressed up mannequins.
>
>
> Cheers!
>
> Todd Zaki Warfel
> President, Design Researcher
> Messagefirst | Designing Information. Beautifully.
> ----------------------------------
> Contact Info
> Voice:	(215) 825-7423
> Email:	todd at messagefirst.com
> AIM:	twarfel at mac.com
> Blog:	http://toddwarfel.com
> ----------------------------------
> In theory, theory and practice are the same.
> In practice, they are not.
>
>
>
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