[IxDA Discuss] Creating personas

[Peter Bagnall]

Kim, Sebi,

Nothing is going to get you as good an insight as actually doing the  
user research yourself. But there are some useful ways to think about  
how far off target you might be if you can't do that.

How different are you from the person you're designing from? The more  
different you are the harder it is to see the world through the other  
persons eyes, and hence the harder it is to design something  
appropriate. But if you're designing for someone like yourself then  
you might do ok making up your personas from your own experience and  
insight. The term I've coined to describe this is "Empathic  
Distance". The greater the distance the more user research you need  
to help you close the gap.

That's fine if you're aware of the empathic distance between you and  
your target audience. But sometimes it can be very easy to assume  
that because you use something the distance will small. Often though  
you'll find that there are several types of user, and while the  
empathic distance between you and others of the same user type might  
be small it may be considerably greater between you and the other  
types. (These types obviously becomes personas if you do the user  
research).

So to get an idea of how dangerous making up your personas is try to  
get a sense of what the empathic distance is. You may also find that  
if the distance is large that may help persuade your client of the  
need for user research! And of course the best person to do that it  
the designer since they will be using it!

Made up personas are not completely worthless, but I would say that  
the bulk of the benefit comes from the process of creation, not from  
the artefact. This is a fundamental point I think many people miss  
with personas. And it's why reusing personas, persona libraries etc  
don't work as well as people think they should.

Hope that's of some help
--Pete


On 13 Feb 2008, at 20:20, Sebi Tauciuc wrote:

> On Feb 13, 2008 9:21 PM, Kim Bieler <kimbieler at mindspring.com> wrote:
>
>> I came away from Interaction '08 convinced of the value of personas
>> in focusing and directing the design of a project. Or, more
>> accurately, I was already convinced -- I came away DETERMINED to
>> start incorporating personas into my workflow.
>>
>> However, for a lot of my projects, I'm working as the subcontractor
>> of the contractor (or sometimes a few more removes even than that!)
>> and don't have any direct contact with the actual client, the users,
>> or the original thinking that went into the project. So I'm wondering
>> how to build personas when I've got no ability to do traditional user
>> research.
>
>
> I may find myself in the same situation soon. If so, I was thinking to
> insist on talking to the actual client. The thing is, I think  
> getting a feel
> of what your client wants might be pretty challenging when there's  
> one other
> person in-between. Your client probably is not an expert in  
> communication,
> and the same could be true of the middle-man...Even basic  
> requirements might
> reach you distorted...
>
>
>>
>> Here's what I've got so far:
>>
>> 1. Use my imagination.
>
> I've tried that in the past. I ended up not trusting my own  
> personas. If
> that happens, what's the point? Maybe I didn't try hard enough  
> though, I
> don't know..
>
>
>>
>> 2. Lurk around internet bulletin boards related to my project topics.
>
>
> I imagine that might help to a point. Of course, it's not behavior,  
> but it's
> something.
>
>>
>> 3. Ask my client if they've got any user research (duh).
>
>
> First thing on my mind :)
>
>
>>
>> 4. All of the above and hope that half-assed personas are better than
>> no personas.
>>
>
> Good question. It's not your ideal situation, that's for sure. I  
> guess...it
> depends :)
> Looking forward to other opinions and experiences.
>
>>
>> Think that will work?
>>
>>
>> -- Kim
>>
>>
>>
> -- 
> Sergiu Sebastian Tauciuc
> http://www.sergiutauciuc.ro/en/
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----------------------------------------------------------
The question "Who ought to be boss?" is like as "Who ought to
be the tenor in the quartet?" Obviously, the man who can sing tenor.
      - Henry Ford, 1863 - 1947

Peter Bagnall - http://www.surfaceeffect.com/about/pete