Michael, 2008/11/17 Michael Stiso <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> 1) *Frankenstein.* As I understand it, the better persona practitioners > will > base their constructions on real-world data. Essentially, they use various > methods to gather a bunch of data on behaviors, attitudes, and demographics > from some population, and then reorganize and combine the various data > points into some mock person. If that is correct, then it would seem that > the resulting persona doesn't represent any actual user -- it's just made > up > of parts of real users, like a Frankenstein's monster. As James > Page<http://gamma.ixda.org/discuss.php?post=35466#35613>said in a > comment on the ACD/UCD thread, the result is a fiction. > I think this point is the major misconception about the creation of a good persona. As Liz outlines, and Will alludes to, a persona is an archetype representing a segment of the audience. To derive those archetypes one does not copy and paste characteristics from real users willy-nilly to craft a pleasant-looking, but fictional user. Just like in market research, persona creation is a segmentation exercise that should be a) driven by real user research; b) analysed using appropriate techniques. In this case, one of several forms of multi-variate statistical analysis ranging from the simple (cross-tabulation, or radial maps) to the complex (clustering analysis, multi-dimensional scaling, or factor analysis). In each case the aim is to identify groupings or clusters of users who share a largely overlapping set of characteristics in those dimensions relevant to your design problem. Personas - when done in this manner - *are not* fictional; they're representative, and that's a whole world of difference. Regards Steve -- Steve 'Doc' Baty | Principal Consultant | Meld Consulting | P: +61 417 061 292 | E: [EMAIL PROTECTED] | Twitter: docbaty Blog: http://docholdsfourth.blogspot.com Contributor - UXMatters - www.uxmatters.com ________________________________________________________________ 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
