Persona Modeler
                      Revealing who is coming to your site
                      Dana Chisnell
                      @danachis
                      #makingsense




                                                             1


Friday, March 1, 13
Matthew




Friday, March 1, 13
Matthew
         Attorney
         House in Tel Aviv
         Married
         Loves his Blackberry
         Hates email
         Reads NYTimes on iPad
         Addicted to Words With Friends




Friday, March 1, 13
Buying tickets on a
       university web site
       for the Big Game




Friday, March 1, 13
Edith




Friday, March 1, 13
Edith
       Follows American sports, especially
       baseball
       Hates ESPN.com
       Loves face-to-face online




Friday, March 1, 13
Dennis




Friday, March 1, 13
Dennis
        Building contractor
        Cell phone is for calling home
        Very tuned in to current events
        Sees no usefulness in Facebook
        Recently more absent-minded
        Difficulty doing standard calculations




Friday, March 1, 13
Jane




Friday, March 1, 13
Jane
         1,000-acre farm
         Tweets soil chemical readings
         Tablet instrumented to aggregate data




Friday, March 1, 13
You: designer & developer




Friday, March 1, 13
You: designer & developer
                      How do you design for these people
                      based on what you know?




Friday, March 1, 13
You: designer & developer
                      How do you design for these people
                      based on what you know?




Friday, March 1, 13
You: designer & developer
                      How do you design for these people
                      based on what you know?



                      Think about each of the people as you
                      answer these questions:




Friday, March 1, 13
What can we say about how
                        persistent the person is?




Friday, March 1, 13
How pro-active will this person
                            be in solving problems?




Friday, March 1, 13
How easily will this person
                           become frustrated?




Friday, March 1, 13
How tech savvy is this person?




Friday, March 1, 13
How literate is this person in
                                       the domain?




Friday, March 1, 13
Little data, lots of assumptions




Friday, March 1, 13
How old are they?




Friday, March 1, 13
How old are they?




     Matthew
     Blackberry-loving
     attorney




Friday, March 1, 13
How old are they?


                 54

     Matthew
     Blackberry-loving
     attorney




Friday, March 1, 13
How old are they?


                 54

     Matthew             Edith
     Blackberry-loving   ESPN.com-hating
     attorney            Hangouts fan




Friday, March 1, 13
How old are they?


                 54           83

     Matthew             Edith
     Blackberry-loving   ESPN.com-hating
     attorney            Hangouts fan




Friday, March 1, 13
How old are they?


                 54           83

     Matthew             Edith             Dennis
     Blackberry-loving   ESPN.com-hating   Facebookwhat?
     attorney            Hangouts fan




Friday, March 1, 13
How old are they?


                 54           83                28

     Matthew             Edith             Dennis
     Blackberry-loving   ESPN.com-hating   Facebookwhat?
     attorney            Hangouts fan




Friday, March 1, 13
How old are they?


                 54           83                28

     Matthew             Edith             Dennis          Jane
     Blackberry-loving   ESPN.com-hating   Facebookwhat?   Farmer nerd
     attorney            Hangouts fan




Friday, March 1, 13
How old are they?


                 54           83                28              60

     Matthew             Edith             Dennis          Jane
     Blackberry-loving   ESPN.com-hating   Facebookwhat?   Farmer nerd
     attorney            Hangouts fan




Friday, March 1, 13
Friday, March 1, 13
How old are they?
                             How educated are they?
                      How much money do they make?




Friday, March 1, 13
These don’t matter.




Friday, March 1, 13
If demographics don’t matter,
        what do you do?




Friday, March 1, 13
Ask the right questions




Friday, March 1, 13
Ask the right questions
       • persistence with tech
       • tolerance for risk & experimentation
       • how patient, how easily frustrated


       • tech savviness, expertise
       • strength of tech vocabulary


       • physical or cognitive abilities

Friday, March 1, 13
Friday, March 1, 13
• Attitude
             motivation, emotion, risk tolerance,
             persistence, optimism or pessimism




Friday, March 1, 13
• Attitude
             motivation, emotion, risk tolerance,
             persistence, optimism or pessimism
       • Aptitude
             current knowledge, ability to make
             inferences, expertise




Friday, March 1, 13
• Attitude
             motivation, emotion, risk tolerance,
             persistence, optimism or pessimism
       • Aptitude
             current knowledge, ability to make
             inferences, expertise
       • Ability
             physical and cognitive attributes

Friday, March 1, 13
!

                      A3

Friday, March 1, 13
Technique
             ‣ Focus on the attributes that matter
             ‣ Account for what the user brings to the design
             ‣ Adjustable to context, relationships, domain




Friday, March 1, 13
Tool
             ‣ Framework to think about provisional or proto-
                      personas (little or no data)

             ‣ Schema to evaluate existing personas’ strength of
                      coverage




Friday, March 1, 13
Collaboration tool
             ‣ Do our personas cover all the right attributes?
             ‣ Have we heard from all the users we need to hear
                      from?




Friday, March 1, 13
Task +
       functionality	




Friday, March 1, 13
Task +
       functionality	




Friday, March 1, 13
Task +
       functionality	
       Buying tickets on a
       university web site for the
       Big Game




Friday, March 1, 13
Task +
       functionality	
       Buying tickets on a
       university web site for the
       Big Game
       Home or visitor?




Friday, March 1, 13
Task +
       functionality	
       Buying tickets on a
       university web site for the
       Big Game
       Home or visitor?
       Suites or Varsity Club?




Friday, March 1, 13
Task +
       functionality	
       Buying tickets on a
       university web site for the
       Big Game
       Home or visitor?
       Suites or Varsity Club?
       Student section?




Friday, March 1, 13
Task +
       functionality	
       Buying tickets on a
       university web site for the
       Big Game
       Home or visitor?
       Suites or Varsity Club?
       Student section?
       Drunk girls section?




Friday, March 1, 13
Ask the right questions




Friday, March 1, 13
Ask the right questions

       • Who is the most persistent when it comes to working
         with technology?




Friday, March 1, 13
Ask the right questions

       • Who is the most persistent when it comes to working
         with technology?
       • Who is the most likely to experiment and create
         workarounds when something doesn’t work the way
         they expect?




Friday, March 1, 13
Ask the right questions

       • Who is the most persistent when it comes to working
         with technology?
       • Who is the most likely to experiment and create
         workarounds when something doesn’t work the way
         they expect?
       • Who do you think will give up when they encounter
         frustrations out of impatience?


Friday, March 1, 13
Ask the right questions




Friday, March 1, 13
Ask the right questions

       • Which one has the most tech expertise? Which one
         strikes you as the least tech savvy?




Friday, March 1, 13
Ask the right questions

       • Which one has the most tech expertise? Which one
         strikes you as the least tech savvy?
       • Which one is the most likely to call tech support to help
         them get out of some tech pickle?




Friday, March 1, 13
Ask the right questions

       • Which one has the most tech expertise? Which one
         strikes you as the least tech savvy?
       • Which one is the most likely to call tech support to help
         them get out of some tech pickle?
       • Who will have the most advanced tech vocabulary
         when they do call for support?



Friday, March 1, 13
Matthew




Friday, March 1, 13
Matthew
        Attorney
        House in Tel Aviv, married
        Assistant books reservations
        Loves his Blackberry
        Hates email
        Reads NYTimes on iPad
        Addicted to Words With Friends
        Doesn’t spend a lot of time on the Web
        Avid hiker and birder
        Bad knees
        Needs Rx eyepiece for scope




Friday, March 1, 13
!

                      Where does Matthew fit?

Friday, March 1, 13
M




  !

                      Where does Matthew fit?

Friday, March 1, 13
M

                              M


  !

                      Where does Matthew fit?

Friday, March 1, 13
M

                              M

                                   M
  !

                      Where does Matthew fit?

Friday, March 1, 13
Edith




Friday, March 1, 13
Edith
       Avid sports fan
       Follows Detroit Tigers
       Hates ESPN.com
       Loves face-to-face online
       Picked up Skype early, quickly
       Prefers Google Hangouts
       Dropped FaceTime -
                      gestures were frustrating




Friday, March 1, 13
!

                      Where does Edith fit?

Friday, March 1, 13
E




  !

                      Where does Edith fit?

Friday, March 1, 13
E

                                   E


  !

                      Where does Edith fit?

Friday, March 1, 13
E

                                   E

                            E
  !

                      Where does Edith fit?

Friday, March 1, 13
Dennis




Friday, March 1, 13
Dennis
        Building contractor
        Married to a nurse
        They have 2 kids
        8-year-old cell phone
        Gets current events on the Web
        Sees no usefulness in Facebook
        Trouble sleeping, easily distracted
        Served in the military:
               Blunt Force Brain Trauma




Friday, March 1, 13
!

                      Where does Dennis fit?

Friday, March 1, 13
D




  !

                      Where does Dennis fit?

Friday, March 1, 13
D

                              D


  !

                      Where does Dennis fit?

Friday, March 1, 13
D

                                  D

                      D
  !

                          Where does Dennis fit?

Friday, March 1, 13
Jane




Friday, March 1, 13
Jane
         1,000-acre farm
         12 different systems every day
         Tweets soil chemical readings
         Smartphone alerts from exchanges
         Tablet instrumented to aggregate data
         Minimized manual input
         Arthritic thumbs
         Needs stronger progressive lenses




Friday, March 1, 13
!

                      Where does Jane fit?

Friday, March 1, 13
J




  !

                      Where does Jane fit?

Friday, March 1, 13
J

                                      J


  !

                      Where does Jane fit?

Friday, March 1, 13
J

                                      J

                                J
  !

                      Where does Jane fit?

Friday, March 1, 13
!

                      A3 Persona modeling

Friday, March 1, 13
M

                           M

                               M
  !

                      A3 Persona modeling

Friday, March 1, 13
M        E

                           M        E

                            E   M
  !

                      A3 Persona modeling

Friday, March 1, 13
D M         E

                              DM        E

                      D         E   M
  !

                          A3 Persona modeling

Friday, March 1, 13
D M          E J

                              DM         E J

                                    MJ
                      D         E
  !

                          A3 Persona modeling

Friday, March 1, 13
How do
                      design
                      decisions
                      change with
                      these
                      attributes?


Friday, March 1, 13
How do
                      design
                      decisions
                      change with
                      these
                      attributes?


Friday, March 1, 13
Friday, March 1, 13
Subtlety of
                      affordances

                      Size of targets

                      Directness of the
                      happy path

                      Feedback modalities

                      Labeling & trigger
                      words

                      Amount of copy

                      Wording of
                      instructions &
                      messages



Friday, March 1, 13
Friday, March 1, 13
If you had this tool, what would you do
             next?




Friday, March 1, 13
If you had this tool, what would you do
             next?
             What would be different for your
             design?




Friday, March 1, 13
A3 Persona modeler




Friday, March 1, 13
A3 Persona modeler


       • Designing for attitude, aptitude, & ability
       • Accounting for what the user brings to the design
       • Checking that personas cover the right things




Friday, March 1, 13
Big ideas




Friday, March 1, 13
Big ideas
                      Persona modeler: fast way to visualize users by
                      asking important questions

                       framework for talking about who users are

                       can tell which users might be missing

                       works with any amount of data

                       middle ground between demographics and
                       research-based personas




Friday, March 1, 13
Where to learn more


          Dana’s blog: http://
          usabilitytesting.wordpress.com

          Download templates, examples, and
          links to other resources from
          www.wiley.com/go/usabilitytesting




Friday, March 1, 13
Dana
                      Chisnell
                      dana@usabilityworks.net

                      www.usabilityworks.net
                      415.519.1148



                      @danachis




Friday, March 1, 13

Persona modeler

  • 1.
    Persona Modeler Revealing who is coming to your site Dana Chisnell @danachis #makingsense 1 Friday, March 1, 13
  • 2.
  • 3.
    Matthew Attorney House in Tel Aviv Married Loves his Blackberry Hates email Reads NYTimes on iPad Addicted to Words With Friends Friday, March 1, 13
  • 4.
    Buying tickets ona university web site for the Big Game Friday, March 1, 13
  • 5.
  • 6.
    Edith Follows American sports, especially baseball Hates ESPN.com Loves face-to-face online Friday, March 1, 13
  • 7.
  • 8.
    Dennis Building contractor Cell phone is for calling home Very tuned in to current events Sees no usefulness in Facebook Recently more absent-minded Difficulty doing standard calculations Friday, March 1, 13
  • 9.
  • 10.
    Jane 1,000-acre farm Tweets soil chemical readings Tablet instrumented to aggregate data Friday, March 1, 13
  • 11.
    You: designer &developer Friday, March 1, 13
  • 12.
    You: designer &developer How do you design for these people based on what you know? Friday, March 1, 13
  • 13.
    You: designer &developer How do you design for these people based on what you know? Friday, March 1, 13
  • 14.
    You: designer &developer How do you design for these people based on what you know? Think about each of the people as you answer these questions: Friday, March 1, 13
  • 15.
    What can wesay about how persistent the person is? Friday, March 1, 13
  • 16.
    How pro-active willthis person be in solving problems? Friday, March 1, 13
  • 17.
    How easily willthis person become frustrated? Friday, March 1, 13
  • 18.
    How tech savvyis this person? Friday, March 1, 13
  • 19.
    How literate isthis person in the domain? Friday, March 1, 13
  • 20.
    Little data, lotsof assumptions Friday, March 1, 13
  • 21.
    How old arethey? Friday, March 1, 13
  • 22.
    How old arethey? Matthew Blackberry-loving attorney Friday, March 1, 13
  • 23.
    How old arethey? 54 Matthew Blackberry-loving attorney Friday, March 1, 13
  • 24.
    How old arethey? 54 Matthew Edith Blackberry-loving ESPN.com-hating attorney Hangouts fan Friday, March 1, 13
  • 25.
    How old arethey? 54 83 Matthew Edith Blackberry-loving ESPN.com-hating attorney Hangouts fan Friday, March 1, 13
  • 26.
    How old arethey? 54 83 Matthew Edith Dennis Blackberry-loving ESPN.com-hating Facebookwhat? attorney Hangouts fan Friday, March 1, 13
  • 27.
    How old arethey? 54 83 28 Matthew Edith Dennis Blackberry-loving ESPN.com-hating Facebookwhat? attorney Hangouts fan Friday, March 1, 13
  • 28.
    How old arethey? 54 83 28 Matthew Edith Dennis Jane Blackberry-loving ESPN.com-hating Facebookwhat? Farmer nerd attorney Hangouts fan Friday, March 1, 13
  • 29.
    How old arethey? 54 83 28 60 Matthew Edith Dennis Jane Blackberry-loving ESPN.com-hating Facebookwhat? Farmer nerd attorney Hangouts fan Friday, March 1, 13
  • 30.
  • 31.
    How old arethey? How educated are they? How much money do they make? Friday, March 1, 13
  • 32.
  • 33.
    If demographics don’tmatter, what do you do? Friday, March 1, 13
  • 34.
    Ask the rightquestions Friday, March 1, 13
  • 35.
    Ask the rightquestions • persistence with tech • tolerance for risk & experimentation • how patient, how easily frustrated • tech savviness, expertise • strength of tech vocabulary • physical or cognitive abilities Friday, March 1, 13
  • 36.
  • 37.
    • Attitude motivation, emotion, risk tolerance, persistence, optimism or pessimism Friday, March 1, 13
  • 38.
    • Attitude motivation, emotion, risk tolerance, persistence, optimism or pessimism • Aptitude current knowledge, ability to make inferences, expertise Friday, March 1, 13
  • 39.
    • Attitude motivation, emotion, risk tolerance, persistence, optimism or pessimism • Aptitude current knowledge, ability to make inferences, expertise • Ability physical and cognitive attributes Friday, March 1, 13
  • 40.
    ! A3 Friday, March 1, 13
  • 41.
    Technique ‣ Focus on the attributes that matter ‣ Account for what the user brings to the design ‣ Adjustable to context, relationships, domain Friday, March 1, 13
  • 42.
    Tool ‣ Framework to think about provisional or proto- personas (little or no data) ‣ Schema to evaluate existing personas’ strength of coverage Friday, March 1, 13
  • 43.
    Collaboration tool ‣ Do our personas cover all the right attributes? ‣ Have we heard from all the users we need to hear from? Friday, March 1, 13
  • 44.
    Task + functionality Friday, March 1, 13
  • 45.
    Task + functionality Friday, March 1, 13
  • 46.
    Task + functionality Buying tickets on a university web site for the Big Game Friday, March 1, 13
  • 47.
    Task + functionality Buying tickets on a university web site for the Big Game Home or visitor? Friday, March 1, 13
  • 48.
    Task + functionality Buying tickets on a university web site for the Big Game Home or visitor? Suites or Varsity Club? Friday, March 1, 13
  • 49.
    Task + functionality Buying tickets on a university web site for the Big Game Home or visitor? Suites or Varsity Club? Student section? Friday, March 1, 13
  • 50.
    Task + functionality Buying tickets on a university web site for the Big Game Home or visitor? Suites or Varsity Club? Student section? Drunk girls section? Friday, March 1, 13
  • 51.
    Ask the rightquestions Friday, March 1, 13
  • 52.
    Ask the rightquestions • Who is the most persistent when it comes to working with technology? Friday, March 1, 13
  • 53.
    Ask the rightquestions • Who is the most persistent when it comes to working with technology? • Who is the most likely to experiment and create workarounds when something doesn’t work the way they expect? Friday, March 1, 13
  • 54.
    Ask the rightquestions • Who is the most persistent when it comes to working with technology? • Who is the most likely to experiment and create workarounds when something doesn’t work the way they expect? • Who do you think will give up when they encounter frustrations out of impatience? Friday, March 1, 13
  • 55.
    Ask the rightquestions Friday, March 1, 13
  • 56.
    Ask the rightquestions • Which one has the most tech expertise? Which one strikes you as the least tech savvy? Friday, March 1, 13
  • 57.
    Ask the rightquestions • Which one has the most tech expertise? Which one strikes you as the least tech savvy? • Which one is the most likely to call tech support to help them get out of some tech pickle? Friday, March 1, 13
  • 58.
    Ask the rightquestions • Which one has the most tech expertise? Which one strikes you as the least tech savvy? • Which one is the most likely to call tech support to help them get out of some tech pickle? • Who will have the most advanced tech vocabulary when they do call for support? Friday, March 1, 13
  • 59.
  • 60.
    Matthew Attorney House in Tel Aviv, married Assistant books reservations Loves his Blackberry Hates email Reads NYTimes on iPad Addicted to Words With Friends Doesn’t spend a lot of time on the Web Avid hiker and birder Bad knees Needs Rx eyepiece for scope Friday, March 1, 13
  • 61.
    ! Where does Matthew fit? Friday, March 1, 13
  • 62.
    M ! Where does Matthew fit? Friday, March 1, 13
  • 63.
    M M ! Where does Matthew fit? Friday, March 1, 13
  • 64.
    M M M ! Where does Matthew fit? Friday, March 1, 13
  • 65.
  • 66.
    Edith Avid sports fan Follows Detroit Tigers Hates ESPN.com Loves face-to-face online Picked up Skype early, quickly Prefers Google Hangouts Dropped FaceTime - gestures were frustrating Friday, March 1, 13
  • 67.
    ! Where does Edith fit? Friday, March 1, 13
  • 68.
    E ! Where does Edith fit? Friday, March 1, 13
  • 69.
    E E ! Where does Edith fit? Friday, March 1, 13
  • 70.
    E E E ! Where does Edith fit? Friday, March 1, 13
  • 71.
  • 72.
    Dennis Building contractor Married to a nurse They have 2 kids 8-year-old cell phone Gets current events on the Web Sees no usefulness in Facebook Trouble sleeping, easily distracted Served in the military: Blunt Force Brain Trauma Friday, March 1, 13
  • 73.
    ! Where does Dennis fit? Friday, March 1, 13
  • 74.
    D ! Where does Dennis fit? Friday, March 1, 13
  • 75.
    D D ! Where does Dennis fit? Friday, March 1, 13
  • 76.
    D D D ! Where does Dennis fit? Friday, March 1, 13
  • 77.
  • 78.
    Jane 1,000-acre farm 12 different systems every day Tweets soil chemical readings Smartphone alerts from exchanges Tablet instrumented to aggregate data Minimized manual input Arthritic thumbs Needs stronger progressive lenses Friday, March 1, 13
  • 79.
    ! Where does Jane fit? Friday, March 1, 13
  • 80.
    J ! Where does Jane fit? Friday, March 1, 13
  • 81.
    J J ! Where does Jane fit? Friday, March 1, 13
  • 82.
    J J J ! Where does Jane fit? Friday, March 1, 13
  • 83.
    ! A3 Persona modeling Friday, March 1, 13
  • 84.
    M M M ! A3 Persona modeling Friday, March 1, 13
  • 85.
    M E M E E M ! A3 Persona modeling Friday, March 1, 13
  • 86.
    D M E DM E D E M ! A3 Persona modeling Friday, March 1, 13
  • 87.
    D M E J DM E J MJ D E ! A3 Persona modeling Friday, March 1, 13
  • 88.
    How do design decisions change with these attributes? Friday, March 1, 13
  • 89.
    How do design decisions change with these attributes? Friday, March 1, 13
  • 90.
  • 91.
    Subtlety of affordances Size of targets Directness of the happy path Feedback modalities Labeling & trigger words Amount of copy Wording of instructions & messages Friday, March 1, 13
  • 92.
  • 93.
    If you hadthis tool, what would you do next? Friday, March 1, 13
  • 94.
    If you hadthis tool, what would you do next? What would be different for your design? Friday, March 1, 13
  • 95.
  • 96.
    A3 Persona modeler • Designing for attitude, aptitude, & ability • Accounting for what the user brings to the design • Checking that personas cover the right things Friday, March 1, 13
  • 97.
  • 98.
    Big ideas Persona modeler: fast way to visualize users by asking important questions framework for talking about who users are can tell which users might be missing works with any amount of data middle ground between demographics and research-based personas Friday, March 1, 13
  • 99.
    Where to learnmore Dana’s blog: http:// usabilitytesting.wordpress.com Download templates, examples, and links to other resources from www.wiley.com/go/usabilitytesting Friday, March 1, 13
  • 100.
    Dana Chisnell dana@usabilityworks.net www.usabilityworks.net 415.519.1148 @danachis Friday, March 1, 13