Robert Hoekman, Jr. kirjoitti 29.11.2007 kello 1:42: >> What is the goal of persona creation? > > Everybody run - it's a trap!
Bite taken... > To a large extent it's a framing tool. Persona creation is a tool to > "feel >> the pain" of the activity, to empathize with the users. > > This is not the only goal, by any means. It's also used to determine > what > features are needed, how the intended audience might use the > solution, etc. No, personas aren't for that, Robert! Scenarios are. You're describing a common error (and known issue) when experimenting with personas. Context scenarios - the next step _after_ personas - are used to figure out, what features are needed and how the intended audience might use the solution. Scenarios and Framework definition are where the invention takes place, and/or starts to get reported to the client. If you embed any future solutions into the _persona description_, you haven't described the current pain, but the future scenario that you're supposed to design. You'd have already limited your scope, too. Personas capture the _current_ behavior. And that's already quite an accomplishment! We're trying to capture the pain with personas, not the cure - yet. Personas help, when you first agree on the problem with the client. Stop there, have a meeting. The go ahead and do some design. That way you can show both cause and effect (before - after), and suddenly the logic behind the design is much more easy to understand for the client, who didn't take the same thought process. There's much less politics involved this way. If you embed the future scenarios into persona descriptions, you lose the ability to display cause and effect - both for yourself and your audience. The persona description is a bit paradoxical. You first describe the current behavior, tools, aptitudes, attitudes, etc. Then you explain his/her goals. But the persona's goals are not the same as the digital implementation! The digital solution gradually gravitates towards the goals, if the design is good, the code works and the business plan is viable. It can takes several builds and versions, and years. But at least you know the current pain and the goal - just fill the gaps with design. And the version 1.0 can be quite good. Everything you need - for starters, nothing you don't - at first. All this isn't mean to say that you can't design without personas. Sure you can. But when used with care, I've found that they save a lot of time, create better atmosphere and help us gravitate to better future scenarios. Petteri -- Petteri Hiisilä Senior Interaction Designer iXDesign / +358505050123 / [EMAIL PROTECTED] "Simple is better than complex. Complex is better than complicated." - Tim Peters ________________________________________________________________ *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
