A brief overview of personas and scenarios and how they might be used in a website redesign.

1. Personas
and how they are used in user-
centered design

2. ummm...we are gonna need a new
website.
Ummm, Peter, I'm getting some
complaints on the web site. So,
I'm gonna need you build a new
site this Saturday, mmmkay.

3. ummm...we are gonna need a new
website.
Instead of design by
committee, we're going to do it
right this time. We'll be
implementing a user-centered
design approach.

4. ummm...we are gonna need a new
website.
It'll include contextual
inquiry, prototyping,
usability testing, and affinity
diagramming. But we'll start
with personas.

5. ummm...we are gonna need a new
website.
Ummm, yeah. I'm not sure
what language that was. Just,
ummm...yeah. Good talk.

6. What we're going to talk about:
• What are the key points of user-centered design?
• What is a persona?
• Why do we care?
• See examples of data sources for personas.
• Learn how to conduct persona character development.
• How do we make personas useful?
• Review what we learned.

7. Key Points of User-Centered Design
• Design is based upon an explicit understanding of users,
tasks, and environments through personas.
• Users are involved throughout design and development.
• Design is driven and refined by user-centred evaluation.
• Process is iterative.
• Design addresses the whole user experience.
• Design team includes multidisciplinary skills and
perspectives.

8. In simple terms, personas are a
fictional characters with real-world
attributes that represent your
customer/constituent base.

9. ummm...we are gonna need a new
website.
Ummmkay. So, why do we care?

10. Personas require designers and developers
to step away from a functionality or
requirements document and understand
how people actually interact with the
product.
You'll discover more about your users than
you thought you knew, and you'll better
understand your user’s needs and pain
points.

11. Questions you might ask on a
website redesign:
1. Who are our users?
2. What are the users’ tasks and goals?
3. What are the users’ experience levels?
4. What functions do the users need?
5. What information might the users need, and in what form do
they need it?
6. How do users think the site should work?
7. Does the interface utilize different inputs modes?

12. ummm...we are gonna need a new
website.
Ummm, how about the
TPS reports?

13. It all starts with the data...
• Purchasing Information
• CRM Reports - Current Customer Data
• Surveys
• Marketing Research
• Industry Trends

17. What does your current site tell
you?
• Website Traffic Analytics
• Search Queries
• Social Demographics
• Social Media Usage
• Advertising Analytics

25. ummm...we are gonna need a new
website.
Now we put all this together
and tell a story.

26. • Name
• Picture
• Demographics
• Roles and Responsibilities
• Goals and Tasks
• Motivations and Needs
• Environment and Context
• Brief Description of Person
Components of a Persona

27. MYU
MYU

28. MYU

29. MYU

30. • Having a very busy life, when Puja is not at work, she is always
on the run. She uses the Internet on her phone most of the time,
and if she has to spend much time trying to figure out how to use
a site, she loses her patience and moves on with her day.
• She can't live without her iPhone. In fact she's a huge Apple fan.
Puja has a Mac, iPad, and iPhone.
Let's dig a little deeper to further develop Puja's character...
• Puja uses her iPhone and iPad for everything - from texting and
social media on her iPhone to online purchases and Netflix on
her iPad
• Puja's Internet usage, for personal needs, tends to be during
lunch and late in the evening. That's when she catches up with
friends and occasionally does a little shopping.
• She considers herself an early adopter, and her friends are
always asking what kinds of apps they should download.
• She's never given money to her university foundation before, but
now that she's been working for three years, she feels like she
could give back.
• She recently thought of giving back to her university after she
"liked" the university's Facebook page.
• Puja makes $55,000 a year as a marketing manager for a
nonprofit, and she's been out of school for three years.

31. ummm...we are gonna need a new
website.
With the personas
complete, we can then run
through scenarios and
create functional
specifications.

32. Scenarios are narratives that use personas
to describe “a day in the life”, best-case
situation, worst-case situation, etc...
They are used to validate personas and to
capture majority of use cases.
They are used with personas throughout the
design, development, and QA process.

33. Let's look at a possible scenario...
Puja takes a few minutes to check Facebook and email during
her lunch break at a local sandwich shop. She reads an email
newsletter posted by her university alumni group with a link to
the website for a end-of-year giving opportunity. She visits the
foundation site not expecting to make a donation, but she's
curious about what's involved.
Key Considerations for Puja:
• Needs to be mobile friendly
• Easy to use with simple steps
• Not interested in taking the time to read much more than it
takes to make a decision to give
• Multiple social engagement opportunities
• Visually pleasing flat page design
• Clear Calls to Action (CTA) to drive action down
conversion funnel
• Ability to complete the entire transaction online

34. Outputs and Inputs
Outputs:
• Better definition of users' needs and wants
• Tools for designers and developers
Inputs:
• Starting point for functional specifications
• Used throughout the rest of design and development -
design, content strategy, and quality assurance.

35. ummm...we are gonna need a new
website.
Yeah, so you're telling me
this isn't design by
committee?

36. What we talked about:
• We learned the basics behind user-centered design.
• We defined a persona.
• We learned why they are important.
• We saw examples of commonly used data sources for
personas.
• We learned how to conduct persona character development.
• We conducted scenarios around personas, and we found out
how they are used in the development lifecycle.

37. ummm...we are gonna need a new
website.
Ahh, so it looks like I'm
also gonna need you to go
ahead and come in on
Sunday, too...

38. Thank You!
Sean Hudson
sean@vermilion.com
@seanhudson