A user profile can a description of a particular user of a product or a summary of the characteristics of particular groups of users from surveys, interviews, or some combination of user research methods. As John noted below: "User profile" sometimes means "the collection of preferences associated with a particular user of a product". There is one other definition that emerges from advertising -- "user profile" can refer to a database built by advertising or marketing firms that helps focus content and services toward particular individuals as Amazon does when it list books on HCI or UCD.
I have some good references at home about user profiles that I'll add to this discussion. With regard to personas, I think that Henry Dreyfus, the iconic industrial designer, was an earlier proponent of personas (though he didn't use that term) in the 1950s. His book, Designing for People, pretty much defines the general themes of user-centered design in my opinion. See Chapter 2 in his book for an interesting early approach to Personas (Joseph and Josephine). Chauncey On Wed, Jun 4, 2008 at 9:19 AM, John Vaughan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Here's how we do it: > > Role: > A group or category of "users" (s.a. Student, Faculty or Librarian) who > share a defined set of needs and perform a common set of tasks. Role is > identified at Log-In (if appropriate) and defines Permissioning to perform > tasks. > > Profile: > If a person has a Log-in ID and we maintain a unique Record of them and > their Behavior (s.a. Preferences or My Favorites), then we call the data > affiliated with that unique record an (upper-case) "Profile". > > Persona: > Analytical tool pretty much as defined by others in this thread. > > Scenario: > Defines a task (or set of tasks)- usually affiliated with a Role and often > referenced in description of a "day in the life" of a Persona. > > Goal: > The "motivator" driving a Scenario and providing context for the Tasks; > This is usually the focus of the Persona description > > Task: > More granular description of scenario; Maps fairly directly to items in the > Business Requirements doc. > > Use Case: > Generic "functionality" underlying tasks, behaviors & features. > > > Talking to the Team: > > Roles & Goals are the high level stuff that helps communicate to upper > Management and Marketing side. The Business side wants to see those, plus > Tasks & Scenarios in a Business Requirements doc. Tech side wants > Requirements docs, Tasks & Use Cases - Roles, of course, help them > understand & manage Profiles & Permissioning . > > John Vaughan > The Communication Studio LLC > > > > ----- Original Message ----- From: "Lee McIvor" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Sent: Wednesday, June 04, 2008 8:07 AM > Subject: Re: [IxDA Discuss] Profile vs. Persona > > >> In my experience profiles usually refer to marketing profiles of users - >> based on information like demographics. >> >> Personas are user archetypes based on a synthesis of goals, behaviours and >> motivations. Personas may include personal details such as names, >> photographs and demographics, but they do not in any way define personas. >> Indeed in many cases you will find personas lack precisely this kind of >> information because they're not directly relevant. >> >> If there's a single article on the web that describes personas best, it's >> this one from Cooper in my opinion: >> >> >> http://www.cooper.com/insights/journal_of_design/articles/perfecting_your_personas_1.html >> >> >> Regards >> >> Lee >> >> leemcivor.co.uk >> >> >> >> ----- Original Message ---- >> From: oliver green <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >> Sent: Wednesday, 4 June, 2008 5:47:14 AM >> Subject: [IxDA Discuss] Profile vs. Persona >> >> Hi All, >> >> Is there a difference between the term profile and persona? >> >> Thanks, >> Oliver >> ________________________________________________________________ >> 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 >> >> >> >> __________________________________________________________ >> Sent from Yahoo! Mail. >> A Smarter Email http://uk.docs.yahoo.com/nowyoucan.html >> ________________________________________________________________ >> 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 > > ________________________________________________________________ > 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 > ________________________________________________________________ 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
