2. USING SCENARIOS
Once a working persona has been created, the next step is to
create an imaginary scenario that helps contextualize the
conditions from which the persona will be acting.
This is an entirely hypothetical situation. The individual you
have created in your persona does not exist in a
vacuum, rather, much like you and I, this person could very
well have time limitations, pressing obligations, or
technological constraints that effect his or her situation.
The purpose of the scenario is to help the designer visualize
the conditions that brought the imaginary user to your
website, and the manner in which he or she navigates through
it. The ultimate goal is to create a scenario that sheds light on
the various ways in which your site will be accessed.
7. DECONSTRUCTING SCENARIOS
By placing yourself in the hypothetical situations imagined in each
scenario, you should be able to visualize potential design problems
and overcome them while still in the preliminary design phase, before
any of the website code has been written.
From the previous examples we can see that time is of short supply for
both Jennifer and Janelle, and that despite their sincere interest in
information design, they do not have considerable amounts of time to
spend on their computers.
A potential solution to this problem would be to create a website that
houses smaller chucks of information, organized in such a way that
users can easily return throughout the day to pick up where they left
off.
This is just one example; there is no limit to how many different
scenarios one could dream up, each with their own potential problems
and solutions.
8. CONCLUSION
Creating user scenarios is an efficient, and cost effective, way to test
design solutions early on and avoid costly corrections later. If you are not
doing so already, incorporating this process into your design plan with
greatly improve your work.
Thank you.
