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SIGIA-L Mail Archives: Re: [Sigia-l] Personas vs Business Needs?

Re: [Sigia-l] Personas vs Business Needs?

From: Alexander Johannesen (alexander.johannesen_at_gmail.com)
Date: Wed Jul 19 2006 - 22:36:19 EDT

On 7/20/06, Ziya Oz <listera_at_earthlink.net> wrote:
> Substitute "personas" with "usage patterns" (either field-observed or
> conjectured) you'd arrive at an unpretentious design practice.

Substitute "usage patterns" with "personas", you'd arrive at a more
human design practice. :) In my experience "pattern thinking" creates
a sense of usage behaviour which is clean and predictable but filled
with nagging little flaws. Mr Jenkins, age 53, is a grump, and even
though he can follow some "usage pattern" he also differs from it by
being the grump that he is, and those differences tends to be subtle
but important.

What I do with personas is to make sure that one of them is a grump,
one is impatience, one is dysfuctional, another is low-vision and
angry, and so forth. The fastest way to design for Mr Jenkins, age 53,
and to align him with the business goals is to point to him and ask if
someone on our team ever had to deal with this grump! And sure enough,
they have, and lots of suggestions crop up to try to get him off our
back, in the best possible way. People seem to (again, my experience)
spot flaws in systems faster based on how dysfunctional grumpy
impatient people use them. I also find it easier to work with my peers
when the personas are loaded with emotions and flaws more than
stereotypes of behavioral patterns.

Alex 

-- 
"Ultimately, all things are known because you want to believe you know."
                                                         - Frank Herbert
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