Creating Personas - Prescient Digital Media 09

Who we are • Prescient Digital Media is a group of senior intranet and Internet consultants that provide strategic Internet and intranet consulting, planning and communications services to organizations of all sizes. 2 © 2009 Prescient Digital Media

What do you mean by “user”? • You may know your users but when you are designing your information architecture and creating a design does everyone understand what you mean by “user”? 7 © 2009 Prescient Digital Media

Do you know the Demographics? • For example, Generation & Values o Baby Boomers (1943–1960) Teamwork , Long hours, Hard work, Recognition  o Generation X (1961–1981) Competence, Ongoing learning, Informality, Feedback  o Generation Y (1982–2001) Achievement, Structure, Collaboration, Mission  9 © 2009 Prescient Digital Media

Do you know the Special Needs? • What are the specific requirements? • What are the special need requirements? o 15 % of the population has some form of accessibility issue. 10 © 2009 Prescient Digital Media

What are personas? • “.. personas are not real people…they are hypothetical archetypes of actual users…defined with significant rigor and precision.” – 1999 Alan Cooper, The inmates are running the asylum 15 © 2009 Prescient Digital Media

Persona’s Explained • Personas are synthesized from data collected. • They are captured in descriptions that include behaviour patterns, goals, skills, attitudes, and environment, with a few fictional personal details, including a name, to bring the persona to life. 17 © 2009 Prescient Digital Media

Benefits of Personas • Personas represent a larger group of users within a construct framework and provide a realistic point of reference. focus • Personas help provide and a strong sense goals are and thereby of what the users’ provide them direction on how to fulfill those goals. 18 © 2009 Prescient Digital Media

Creating personas • Step 1: Collect and analyze data • Step 2: Align assumptions, data and user types with goals • Step 3: Create skeletons and rationales • Step 4: Create Personas • Step 5: Choose a Primary Persona • Step 6: Promote their use • Step 7: Use personas • Step 8: Review personas before using again 19 © 2009 Prescient Digital Media

Step 2 – Conduct a workshop • Have participants o Write assumptions User type & goal, activity or  problem o Group the assumptions by user type o Create overarching goals per user type o Align facts & research data with each category 21 © 2009 Prescient Digital Media

Step 2 – Conduct a workshop Write assumptions: User type & goal, activity or problem Student Student who thinking about needs a course taking courses to complete a to improve certificate career User Type: Students Group the assumptions by user type Goal: Make Create overarching goals per user type courses quick and easy to access Fact: 80% of Students Align facts & research data with each that take these category courses are between 21-25 years old 22 © 2009 Prescient Digital Media

Step 3: Persona Skeleton Rationale Demographics Represented in Personas Gender 4 of the personas are female  Female = 463 (70.5%) 1 is male  Male = 194 (29.5%) Two are between 35 – 45 Age  age 35-45 = 225 employees (34.2% of employees) Two are between 25-35  age 25-35 = 220 employees (33.5% of employees) One is over 45  age 45 and up = 195 employees (29.7% of employees)  age 18-25 = 17 employees (2.6% of employees) Location [total employees 657 – 750] Two of the personas are from Ottawa  Ottawa = 350 One is from Toronto  Toronto = 276 One is from Montreal  Montréal = 13 One is a telecommuter  Victoria = 12  24 telecommuters Education Two are post grads/Master degrees  Post graduate & Master = 222 employees (37%) Two are undergrads  Undergrad = 207 employees (34%) One has diploma  Diploma (Technical School) = 161 employees (27%)  HS (High School) = 17 employees (3%) Length of Service Two have 2-5 years  2 years - 5 years = 217 (33.0%) One has more than 5 years  More than 5 years = 179 (27.2%) One has between 6mths to 2 years  6 months - 2 years = 147 (22.4%) One is a new employee <6mths  Less than 6 months = 114 (17.4%) Computer and Devices Two have PDAs  ~ 160 person with PDA All are computer literate  ~ 300 with laptop One has minimal training (e.g. for intranet)  ~ 250 with VPN access  100% MSOffice Bilingual Two of the personas are bilingual • 27.55% are bilingual 23 © 2009 Prescient Digital Media

Step 3: Develop skeletons • • Draft an outline of Female • University Grad the personas • 26 years old • Conduct interviews, • Currently working full-time at a bank at least two for • Working for less than 1 year each “persona type” • Avg. income 40K to collect more • Works in Toronto detail and confirm/ • She comes to the website remove any for course information assumptions 24 © 2009 Prescient Digital Media

Step 4: Create Personas Generation Y (1982–2001) Name Demographics •  Achievement, Female •  Structure, Age – 26 years old •  Collaboration, Education – University Grad •  Mission Location - Works in Toronto  Currently working full-time at a bank  Working for less than 1 year  Avg. income 40K  Role – support or management Lifestyle  Marital status  Hobbies & Interests Key Characteristics/ Behaviour  How often on computer and on the site? skills  Travel, mobile or in office?  Technical skills  Personality traits  Social skills  Core competencies Website/Intranet Uses: Future Requirements/Goals  Frequently used areas  Can include personalization and customization  Any collaboration needs  Any tools or software 25 © 2009 Prescient Digital Media

Step 4: Create Personas Generation Y (1982–2001) Name Demographics Facts •  Achievement, Female •  Structure, Age – 26 years old •  Collaboration, Education – University Grad •  Mission Location - Works in Toronto  Currently working full-time at a bank  Working for less than 1 year  Avg. income 40K  Role – support or management Assumption, Lifestyle goals, data – from  Marital status  Hobbies & Interests workshop Key Characteristics/ Behaviour  How often on computer and on the site? skills  Travel, mobile or in office?  Technical skills  Personality traits  Social skills  Core competencies Website/Intranet Uses: Future Requirements/Goals  Frequently used areas  Can include personalization and customization  Any collaboration needs  Any tools or software Web Metrics Persona Interviews 26 © 2009 Prescient Digital Media

Step 5: Choose a Primary Persona Pierre – Project & People Manager • Once you’ve created several personas one should be chosen as “primary”. • The primary persona has right of way, their needs must be met. 27 © 2009 Prescient Digital Media

Step 6: Promote their use • Promote and communicate the personas and their use o Catchy Names (Rita Researcher) o Posters o Cut-outs o Cards o Include them in your project site 28 © 2009 Prescient Digital Media

Step 6: Use - Why use Personas • “The idea isn’t to build something that only one single person will love. Rather, the idea is to build something with one single person in mind. If you use personas focus on as a tool to focus on very specific goals, you’ll a whole class of people – who all share those goals.” – Nielsen Norman Group, Adlin & Pruitt 29 © 2009 Prescient Digital Media

Problem • Common complaints with respect to usability revolved around the difficulty experienced by users in finding relevant information. • Features of the site most in need of improvement included: search functionality, design (branding), and navigation, with an emphasis on making the site more consumer-focused and intuitive to their user audiences. • Overall goals with respect to usability were to focus on reducing the abandonment rate and providing users with numerous opportunities to find the course or information they are looking for. 31 © 2009 Prescient Digital Media

Approach • Assessment o Research review, metric analysis & site evaluation – Key Findings and Recommendations report • Planning o Developed personas & logic flows o Developed IA , wireframes & a prototype site o Conducted usability testing & persona validation with 10 participants o Modified IA & wireframes o Created design concepts o (12 week project) • Site re-launched in November 2008 32 © 2009 Prescient Digital Media

Persona 1: Looking for a Career in Financial Services Demographics • Female • University Grad • 26 years old • Currently working full-time at a bank • Working for less than 1 year • Avg. income 40K • Works in Toronto “Debbie” • Wants to take the CSC/IFC to advance her career Anticipated Behaviour • Debbie will visit the CSI site either by a referral from someone else (incl. HR/Training) which in all likelihood would be to the home page of www.csi.ca or by searching on Google for CSC, IFC or potentially CSI. • Debbie’s first visit to the site will be exploratory; she will want to learn as much as possible about the courses and what her options are. She will be willing to make a long term commitment to learning to get her designations if she feels they will help her career and her earning potential. • Debbie’s next visit to the site will be from a bookmarked page – probably the CSC or IFC main page. She will want to know the cost so she can get approval. She will want to know how long the courses are, what the delivery options are and when the next course is so that she can coordinate her schedule. She will want to know how quickly she can complete her qualifications and if they can be applied to her performance review. • Debbie is willing to take courses in person as she sees it as a networking opportunity but she is also computer literate and comfortable with online courses. She is also very interested in understanding the 34 exam process and seeing examples would ease her mind on what she needs to be prepared for. © 2008 Prescient Digital Media

Persona 2: Current CSI Student Demographics • Male • 36 years old • University grad; Fluent in English and French • Working for 5 years; Currently working full-time at Full service brokerage • Works in Montreal • Avg. income $79K • Investment Advisor therefore, he has completed the CSC, CPH and WME; “John” • Looking to complete his Continuing Education requirements (modules/seminars) Anticipated Behaviour • John is familiar with CSI and will probably have the site bookmarked or the URL memorized and will go there directly. • John’s focus is on the mandatory IIROC (formerly IDA) CE requirements (30 hours professional and 12 hours compliance every 3 years). • He will go to the site looking for continuing education courses that will provide him with the most value. • He works long hours and is starting a family so his time is limited. • He is looking for specific courses that he can take online if possible. • He wants to see a direct benefit for his career in taking the courses. • He needs to take the courses so he can complete them in time to meet the mandatory requirements. • He may be considering expanding his license and therefore would be interested in insurance, options, futures etc. Therefore he would search continuing education, seminars, certification and perhaps 35 designations to understand what his options are and match them to his interests as well as to bank initiatives © 2008 Prescient Digital Media

Persona 3: Training Manager Demographics • Slightly more skewed towards females • Proficient with internal bank LMS systems • Works full-time for one of the big banks • 38 years old • 8-10 years of related banking/training experience • University grad • Familiar with CSI and ICB courses some of our courses i.e. CSC, PFP “Mary” • Visits www.csi.ca at least once per week Anticipated Behaviour • Mary has the homepage of CSI bookmarked as she visits the site often for a variety of reasons. She needs to be able to get a good overview of what courses are offered as well as their cost and schedule. • Mary sees herself as more of a career manager as she provides employees with information and encouragement on developing their career. • For new employees she provides information on introductory programs (CSC, PFPC, IFC, PFP etc.) . She may email the link to the employee (https://www.csi.ca/student/en_ca/courses/introductory/csc.xhtml) • She spends time with more senior, long-term employees who need to meet mandatory requirements like IIROC's CE 12 hour compliance. • Mary likes to know what is going on within the training environment as well as within the industry – if she sees up to date news she reads it and she subscribes to newsletters that offer training information and advice. Mary likes to be knowledgeable about courses so she can offer in-depth advice. • Mary likes to be able to bookmark various courses and see at a glance the details including pre-requisites, 36 cost and schedule so she can provide the best advice possible to employees. ©•2008 Prescient Digital Media Mary sends out emails to select employees to prompt them to upgrade their skills or to provide them with training advice.

Personas work because… • People respond to people, they are easier to remember and reference than a compilation of data. It is easier to remember “John Persona” rather than: male, generation X, tech savvy, loves video games, travels a lot…. 44 © 2009 Prescient Digital Media

Personas work because… • Personas are generative – people can relate to them, understand them, acknowledge the relationship they would have including experience and acknowledge that they will change overtime. Bethany at 10, 31, 55… 45 © 2009 Prescient Digital Media

Personas work because… • Personas help a team focus on important aspects of target users – they simplify the reference points.  Female Late 20’s   High energy, motivated  Analyst, career focused  Expert txt msgr  Outgoing and social  Has made online purchases Bethany Buyer 46 © 2009 Prescient Digital Media

Use personas to: • Develop information architecture and wireframes • Develop design concepts • Create functional plans • Create content management plan • Create content • Create communications plan o (intranet: Promotional plan) o (Internet: Marketing/SEO plan to attract personas) • Develop products, applications and tools 47 © 2009 Prescient Digital Media

Personas provide user focus “Their greatest value is in providing a shared basis for communication.” – Pruitt & Grudinol, MS http://search.microsoft.com/results.aspx?form=MSHOME&mkt=en-US&setlang=en-US&q=personas 50 © 2009 Prescient Digital Media

Getting started • Do you have a strategy? • Do you want to use personas? o Collect and analyze data o Conduct workshop to gather assumptions, facts and overarching goals per user type o Develop “skeletons” and rationale o Create Personas o Promote Personas o Use Personas o Test Personas 52 © 2009 Prescient Digital Media

Catherine Elder Senior Manager Prescient Digital Media celder@prescientdigital.com www.PrescientDigital.com www.IntranetBlog.com www.Facebook.com (search “Intranet Global Forum”) www.Twitter.com/intranet2 416.986.8800 53 © 2009 Prescient Digital Media

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Creating Personas - Prescient Digital Media 09

by catherine elder on Mar 26, 2009

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