Comments on: Persona Non Grata http://www.webword.com/wp/2005/08/18/persona-non-grata/ The usability blog of John S. Rhodes Sun, 17 Oct 2010 00:45:29 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 hourly 1 By: Steve Portigal http://www.webword.com/wp/2005/08/18/persona-non-grata/comment-page-1/#comment-11023 Steve Portigal Fri, 19 Aug 2005 00:08:26 +0000 http://www.webword.com/2005/08/18/persona-non-grata/#comment-11023 I've only used them when "forced" to; mostly I've seen them misused. Created to represent what we think people are like, or as a club used by marketers to reject any findings outside their predefined customer ("Well, then they aren't a Server Sam"). My favorite line was " For some, they form an artificial barrier between the designer’s product and its users. " True, true, true. The stock photo with the dumb-ass name (Mobile Mike, Cash-and-Carry Kerry) that find their way into everyday conversation are not about designing for people, but for caricatures. I think the real world is too messy - in every sense - for some types of people - and it's scary and hard to filter, so cleaning things up with a fresh and lovely persona is a way to eliminate some of that fear. Thanks for the alert. I’ve only used them when “forced” to; mostly I’ve seen them misused. Created to represent what we think people are like, or as a club used by marketers to reject any findings outside their predefined customer (“Well, then they aren’t a Server Sam”).

My favorite line was ” For some, they form an artificial barrier between the designer’s product and its users. ” True, true, true. The stock photo with the dumb-ass name (Mobile Mike, Cash-and-Carry Kerry) that find their way into everyday conversation are not about designing for people, but for caricatures.

I think the real world is too messy – in every sense – for some types of people – and it’s scary and hard to filter, so cleaning things up with a fresh and lovely persona is a way to eliminate some of that fear.

Thanks for the alert.

]]> By: Jay Zipursky http://www.webword.com/wp/2005/08/18/persona-non-grata/comment-page-1/#comment-11017 Jay Zipursky Thu, 18 Aug 2005 17:09:54 +0000 http://www.webword.com/2005/08/18/persona-non-grata/#comment-11017 I attended the latest UIE roadshow where Kim Goodwin from Cooper presented a 1-day seminar on Personas. The biggest take-away was that the people creating the personas should be the same people that interviewed/observed the users in the first place. <b>And</b> those are the same people that will design the interface. From that, I concluded that Personas are a tool to share the user research with the development team and other stakeholders, but don't and can't replace the designers' deeper knowledge gained from doing the research in the first place. That's the ideal case, anyway. I'm curious if others find them useful in situations where the researcher is different from the designer or if there are more effective methods. I attended the latest UIE roadshow where Kim Goodwin from Cooper presented a 1-day seminar on Personas. The biggest take-away was that the people creating the personas should be the same people that interviewed/observed the users in the first place. And those are the same people that will design the interface.

From that, I concluded that Personas are a tool to share the user research with the development team and other stakeholders, but don’t and can’t replace the designers’ deeper knowledge gained from doing the research in the first place.

That’s the ideal case, anyway. I’m curious if others find them useful in situations where the researcher is different from the designer or if there are more effective methods.

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