In my previous blog I introduced you to design thinking.
Design
thinking is a methodology used by designers to solve complex problems and find
desirable solutions for their customers. Design mindset is not problem focused instead
it is solution focused and action oriented towards creating a preferred future. To know more about design thinking you can visit to my blog.
Now moving on to Personas
Just as organization has business needs, consumers also have
their own needs. Design thinking journey begins with really understanding the
customer and it starts with the customer
You may ask “Why start with the customer”? Answer is very simple to build empathy with
our customers.
Empathy is at its simplest, awareness of the feelings and
emotions of other people. Empathy goes far beyond sympathy, which might be
considered “feeling for” someone. Empathy, on the other hand is “feeling with”
that person, through proper use of imagination. More on empathy in separate
blog J
Empathy requires that you recognize and understand another’s
point of view. Persona is one of the best ways to do so.
Purpose of
personas is to create reliable and realistic representations of your key
audience segments for reference. These representations should be based on qualitative
and some quantitative user research and web analytics.
Personas
are not real people, but they represent them throughout the design process. They
are hypothetical archetypes of actual users. They are useful in considering the
goals, desires and limitations of the users in order to help to guide decisions
about a product such as features, interactions and visual design.
A persona may be synthesized from a series of “Field
activities” such as interviews and work observations resulting in a
representation of an individual that embody the characteristics of a target
user population. Although imaginary, they are defined with significant rigour
and precision. Actually we don’t so much make up our personas as discover them
as a byproduct of our investigation. Only names and personal details are made
up.
Remember personas
are only as good as research behind them. So what do we need to look for
when we create personas?
We need to know what they are thinking feeling and doing in
order to build empathy
What’s in a persona?
Effective persona contains most of the below
Name, Photo, age, education, job title, responsibilities,
Goals and tasks.
How do we get this
information?
Contextual interviews- Watch and listen as users
work
Individual interviews- Talking to user by Phone,
IM or face to face
Surveys- Structured interview with users in form
of pre-defined questions. Mostly online
Focus groups – Moderate discussion between group of people
Effective personas:
Benefits of personas:
Personas
help to focus decisions surrounding business components and decisions by adding
a layer of real world consideration pot he conversation
They offer quick
and inexpensive way to test and prioritize those features throughout the
development process
You may
develop one or more personas for a project but limit yourself to main audiences
for the site. For any project creating 3 or 4 personas at max is best. Remember
it is better to paint with broader brush and meet needs of larger population
rather than try to meet the needs of everyone. Goal of personas is not to represent
all audiences or address all needs of the business but instead to focus on
major needs of the most important user groups
In my coming blogs I will try to dwell more deeper into
Empathy and also take you into IBM design thinking.
