[IxDA Discuss] Book Review: The User Is Always Right

Sat Sep 22 10:36:42 PDT 2007

Also see the interview with Steve on Boxes and Arrows, complete with excerpt
http://www.boxesandarrows.com/view/long-live-the-user
and the review

W Evans wrote:
> The User Is Always Right: A Practical Guide to Creating and Using Personas
> for the Web<http://www.amazon.com/User-Always-Right-Practical-Creating/dp/0321434536>,
> Steve Mulder and Ziv Yaar.
>
> This comprehensive guide approaches user experience research like never
> before, and is *well-written, easy-to-read*, and *quite user friendly*. It
> provides real-world examples of how user research is done in just enough
> detail that it can both inform an executive of the role of usability
> research as well as introduce methodology for persona creation to someone
> starting out in user experience design.* *
>
> *"**You are not the user." *
>
> As an interaction designer and information architect for the past 12 years,
> I have been most drawn towards books that go far beyond principles and
> theory to ones I can actually extract from and use their contents for the
> praxis of the craft, rather than just reading descriptions of a process.
> This is a *great book* that is a blueprint to follow to get it right. It
> defines the entire user research and persona creation process and offers
> insightful case studies from successful companies that Mulder and Yaar
> worked with like Vista Print.
>
> The use of personas has become an increasingly popular technique being used
> by the interaction design community to address user needs. Introduced into
> the mainstream in 1999 in *The Inmates Are Running The
> Asylum<http://www.amazon.com/Inmates-Are-Running-Asylum-Products/dp/0672326140/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/002-0082298-9929645?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1190468401&sr=1-1>
> *, personas have gained momentum in both the software and website
> designcommunities, but still faces hurdles.
> What are the benefits of personas?
>
> A key aspect to any practitioner responsible for bringing real user centered
> design to an organization's product design process, being able to evangelize
> the importance of user research and persona creation is absolutely key. Many
> IxDers <http://gamma.ixda.org/>on this list understand the importance of
> persona creation, but lack the arguments to persuade management to both fund
> user research and persona creation, and to incorporate real users into the
> design process. This is where the book is particular important – selling
> proper user research and persona creation to upper management constrained by
> resources and deadlines. According to Mulder and Yaar, personas bring many
> benefits, including these:
>
>    - Users' goals, behaviors and attitudes become a common point of focus
>    for the team. (They keep repeating this mantra until I found myself chanting
>    it in the shower)
>    - The team can concentrate on designing for a manageable set of
>    personas knowing that they represent the needs of many users.
>    - By always asking, "Would Will use this?" the team can avoid the trap
>    of building what users ask for rather than what they will actually use, or
>    the problem which is far more pernicious – building features that a product
>    champion thinks are important.
>    - Design efforts can be prioritized based on the personas.
>    - Disagreements over design decisions can be sorted out by referring
>    back to the personas.
>    - Designs can be constantly evaluated against the personas, getting
>    better designs into usability testing.
>
> *What is a persona anyway??*
>
> We should all know this, but for new people on the list, a persona is a
> fictional person that the team creates to reflect what is know about one of
> the key audience groups (sometimes that knowledge is gained from interviews,
> focus groups, or surveys). Typically, a team creates two or more personas to
> represent different user segments, while identifying a few key archetypes as
> the primary personas.*
>
> *Helpful persona profiles include demographic information, levels of
> computer expertise, descriptions of the personas' needs for the particular
> site in development, and the goals and tasks they would have in mind when
> using the site.
>
> The User Is Always
> Right<http://www.amazon.com/User-Always-Right-Practical-Creating/dp/0321434536>takes
> you through each step of persona creation, including tips for
> conducting qualitative user research, new ways to apply quantitative
> research (such as surveys) to persona creation, various methods for
> generating persona segmentation, and proven techniques for making personas
> realistic. You'll also learn how to use personas effectively, from directing
> overall business strategy and prioritizing features and content to making
> detailed decisions about information architecture, content, and design.
> What characteristics are included in a persona?
>
> Some of the information Mulder and Yaar say a persona usually includes:
>
>    - a name and picture
>    - demographics (age, education, ethnicity, family status)
>    - job title and major responsibilities
>    - goals and tasks in relation to your product/web site/application
>    - environment (physical, social, technological)
>    - a quote that sums up what matters most to the persona with relevance
>    for your site
>    - A narrative that brings the persona to life
>
> The User Is Always
> Right<http://www.amazon.com/User-Always-Right-Practical-Creating/dp/0321434536>is
> an entertaining and clearly written book that is also filled with
> great
> insight into the process, both qualitative, and quantitative, of creating
> user personas based on real research and how that can help interaction
> designers, product designers, and other user experience professionals make
> more usable and useful software. There are also extensive samples and
> examples throughout the book of real personas, actual user research data,
> and analysis spreadsheets. These give a very clear idea of how the
> recommended approaches work in practice.
>
> For the first time (as far as I'm aware), this brings together two very
> different approaches: qualitative research based on interviews and
> observation; and quantitative research based on surveys and usage data. The
> authors' overall methodology provides real answers on when to use field
> research, when to conduct surveys, and how to combine the two sets of
> results. The end product are personas that have much greater rigueur and
> impact.
>
> *What's in the book:*
>
> *Part 1: Introducing Personas*
> Chapter 1. Putting the User Back in User-Centered Design
> Chapter 2. Meet the Personas
> *Part 2: Creating Personas*
> Chapter 3. Approaches to Creating Personas
> Chapter 4. Conducting Qualitative User Research
> Chapter 5. Conducting Quantitative User Research
> Chapter 6. Generating Persona Segmentation
> Chapter 7. Making Personas Real
> *Part 3: Using Personas*
> Chapter 8. Keeping Personas Alive
> Chapter 9. Directing Business Strategy
> Chapter 10. Scoping Features and Functionality
> Chapter 11. Guiding Structure, Content, and Design
> Chapter 12. Measuring Success
>
> In summary, this is a must-have book for people on the IxDA
> <http://gamma.ixda.org/>list tackling the design of complex sites,
> applications or devices, or for user-centered designers seeking more
> rigorous methodologies when creating personas. I cannot recommend this book
> too highly. Once you have finished this book; have a little user research
> and persona creation under your belt – you are ready for Mike Kunievsky's
> brilliant tomb: Observing the User Experience: A Practitioner's Guide to
> User Research<http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1558609237/qid=1153247574/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&v=glance&n=283155>.
> I will write a book review of this in the coming months for the
> IxDA<http://gamma.ixda.org/>,
> so that while we all focus on going out and actually working our craft, we
> do so in the context of, as Dave Malouf says, our Community of Practice.
>
> *About the authors:*
>
> *Steve Mulder* is principal consultant at Molecular, an Internet consulting
> firm in Boston, and an internationally known speaker recognized for his work
> with personas. He's a user experience expert who practices what he preaches,
> with over ten years of experience in user research, information
> architecture, interaction design, and usability. Learn more at
> MulderMedia.com <http://www.muldermedia.com/>.
>
> *Ziv Yaar* is the vice president of Internet strategy at Molecular, where he
> has spent over ten years helping companies develop technology and business
> strategies and has been at the forefront of merging the power of marketing
> analytics with personas.
>
>
>   

-- 
Christina Wodtke
Principal Instigator
415-577-2550


Business :: http://www.cucinamedia.com
Magazine :: http://www.boxesandarrows.com
Product :: http://www.publicsquarehq.com
Personal :: http://www.eleganthack.com
Book :: http://www.blueprintsfortheweb.com

cwodtke at eleganthack.com