[IxDA Discuss] Examples where personas are *not* useful

[Robert Barlow-Busch]

> Yet, we've found many teams, like Robert, believe personas *are*
> just a report format. Teams that believe this, in our research,
> rarely succeed at designing great experiences for their users.

Quick clarification here on my position: the persona *artifact* is a report
format. The persona *process* is where the real value lies because it
generates useful information. These two are often conflated.

People sometimes get excited to try personas, then wonder why nothing good
comes of the artifact they produce. Typically it's because they're focused
more on the artifact than on the *information* it needs to contain. So you
end up with a shallow or overly-cute description of the annoying "soccer
mom" who makes $60K/year and drives an old Volvo -- and who cares, because
that's just not helpful.

IMHO, the persona *artifact* is valuable mainly for these reasons:

- it reminds designers of what they know about the product users

- it's an engaging format to help spread information across a wider team

- it helps to surface different beliefs that people might hold about the
product users

-- 
Robert Barlow-Busch
http://www.chopsticker.com