The document describes a presentation about creating personas to represent types of users of digital services. It discusses what personas are, how to make them, potential issues with them, and their value. The presentation covers topics like persona templates, using quantitative and qualitative user data to inform personas, testing personas, and addressing criticisms of the approach. It also involves the audience participating in an exercise to collaboratively develop personas for a public sector website based on user data provided. The goal is to help participants better understand and represent their users through creating realistic persona profiles.

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Welcome!

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Personas before stereotypes
How to visualise users of digital services

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We will cover:
￫ What are personas
￫ How to make personas
￫ Personas as controversial
￫ Do personas have value in development?
Today

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What are personas?

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The purpose of personas is to
create reliable and realistic
representations of your key
audience segmentations for
reference”
“
usability.gov

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Personas
Can:

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Personas
Can:
￫ Communicate findings of research quickly

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Personas
Can:
￫ Communicate findings of research quickly
￫ Help developers visualise the users of a service

10. #pb4pixels @rosebotanic@thedxw www.dxw.com
Personas
Can:
￫ Communicate findings of research quickly
￫ Help developers visualise the users of a service
￫ Create empathy with user needs

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Personas
Can:
￫ Communicate findings of research quickly
￫ Help developers visualise the users of a service
￫ Create empathy with user needs
￫ Test development decisions during sprints

12. #pb4pixels @rosebotanic@thedxw www.dxw.com #pb4pixels @rosebotanic@thedxw www.dxw.com
Task: Groups
￫ Find people you don’t know
￫ Introduce yourself
￫ Pick a theme
￫ Choose a public sector website you’re all familiar with that
relates to the theme
￫ Don’t open the envelopes!

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Example: Persona
template

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Name
Age
Occupation
From
Status
Upbeat Single parent
Quote: what do they
say?”
“
Photo of
person
Photo of
devices
t f
Internet transactions
Online Media
Social Networks
List of devices they use to
access the internet
Life motivation:
Photo of
motivation
Top need
● …
● …
● …
Top fears
● …
● …
● …

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Name
Age
Occupation
From
Status
Upbeat Single parent
Quote: what do they
say?”
“
Photo of
person
Photo of
devices
t f
Internet transactions
Online Media
Social Networks
List of devices they use to
access the internet
Life motivation:
Photo of
motivation
Top need
● …
● …
● …
Top fears
● …
● …
● …

16. #pb4pixels @rosebotanic@thedxw www.dxw.com
Name
Age
Occupation
From
Status
Upbeat Single parent
Quote: what do they
say?”
“
Photo of
person
Photo of
devices
t f
Internet transactions
Online Media
Social Networks
List of devices they use to
access the internet
Life motivation:
Photo of
motivation
Top need
● …
● …
● …
Top fears
● …
● …
● …

17. #pb4pixels @rosebotanic@thedxw www.dxw.com
Name
Age
Occupation
From
Status
Upbeat Single parent
Quote: what do they
say?”
“
Photo of
person
Photo of
devices
t f
Internet transactions
Online Media
Social Networks
List of devices they use to
access the internet
Life motivation:
Photo of
motivation
Top need
● …
● …
● …
Top fears
● …
● …
● …

18. #pb4pixels @rosebotanic@thedxw www.dxw.com
Name
Age
Occupation
From
Status
Upbeat Single parent
Quote: what do they
say?”
“
Photo of
person
Photo of
devices
t f
Internet transactions
Online Media
Social Networks
List of devices they use to
access the internet
Life motivation:
Photo of
motivation
Top need
● …
● …
● …
Top fears
● …
● …
● …

19. #pb4pixels @rosebotanic@thedxw www.dxw.com #pb4pixels @rosebotanic@thedxw www.dxw.com
Task: Quantitative
￫ Open Quantitative envelope
￫ Look through the statistics
￫ Discuss what you can infer from the data about the users of
the service
￫ Identify a user type
￫ Add detail to your persona template

20. #pb4pixels @rosebotanic@thedxw www.dxw.com
Name
Age
Occupation
From
Status
Upbeat Single parent
Quote: what do they
say?”
“
Photo of
person
Photo of
devices
t f
Internet transactions
Online Media
Social Networks
List of devices they use to
access the internet
Life motivation:
Photo of
motivation
Top need
● …
● …
● …
Top fears
● …
● …
● …

21. #pb4pixels @rosebotanic@thedxw www.dxw.com #pb4pixels @rosebotanic@thedxw www.dxw.com
Task: Qualitative
￫ Open Qualitative envelope
￫ Look through the quotes
￫ Discuss what you can infer from the data about the users of
the service
￫ How does this impact your user type?
￫ Add detail to your persona template

22. #pb4pixels @rosebotanic@thedxw www.dxw.com
Name
Age
Occupation
From
Status
Upbeat Single parent
Quote: what do they
say?”
“
Photo of
person
Photo of
devices
t f
Internet transactions
Online Media
Social Networks
List of devices they use to
access the internet
Life motivation:
Photo of
motivation
Top need
● …
● …
● …
Top fears
● …
● …
● …

23. #pb4pixels @rosebotanic@thedxw www.dxw.com #pb4pixels @rosebotanic@thedxw www.dxw.com
Task: Usability testing
￫ Open Usability testing envelope
￫ Look through the quotes
￫ Discuss what you can infer from the data about the users of
the service
￫ How does this impact your user type?
￫ Add detail to your persona template

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Task: Make them human
Think about who your persona is as a human
￫ Come up and get some pictures
￫ Give your persona a name
￫ Review your persona - does this feel right?
￫ Stick them up on the walls

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Personas as controversial
￫ Reduce the richness of research

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Personas as controversial
￫ Reduce the richness of research
￫ Encourage developers and decision makers to think in
stereotypes or segments

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Personas as controversial
￫ Reduce the richness of research
￫ Encourage developers and decision makers to think in
stereotypes or segments
￫ Focus public sector services on individuals not
communities

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Personas risk vs value
￫ Encourage your team to break stereotypes down

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Personas risk vs value
￫ Encourage your team to break stereotypes down
￫ Communicate just enough research for quick decision
making

31. #pb4pixels @rosebotanic@thedxw www.dxw.com
Personas risk vs value
￫ Encourage your team to break stereotypes down
￫ Communicate just enough research for quick decision
making
￫ Encourage people to ask questions about users

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Cool

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