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

[Katie Albers]

At 12:54 PM -0700 11/27/07, Robert Hoekman, Jr. wrote:
>  > good design is much more probable when some sort of user
>>  centered research (especially when designing for an audience other
>>  than yourself) is conducted.
>
>
>I agree with the rest of what you said, but again, why *user* centered, as
>opposed to activity-centered or something else?
>
>-r-
>________________________________________________________________

Speaking for myself, here...because different people pursue the same 
activity in different ways. This generally tends to correlate to the 
"type" of user (not gonna get into the whole persona debate that 
directly...unh unh...not now).

To use a really easy example: I write a check. I record the check in 
my register (because I'm such a good little girl). I have recorded a 
debit...if you asked me. But in my mind it's just keeping track of a 
check.

I hand my bookkeeper the duplicates of all the checks I've written 
since last time. She takes each check and records the amount and the 
category and the date and all that other stuff and...she has now 
recorded a credit. But in her mind, she's just keeping track of 
expenditures.

So, labelling may change for each user. Task categorization, 
likewise. And so on...

Katie
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Katie Albers
User Experience Consulting & Project Management
katie at firstthought.com