Todd, You run into the challenge with that the Persona are validated by opinion. Most Persona I have seen would be statistically imposable to relate back to a real person. As **Chris Boese discussed before on this list you should not generalize qualitative data. Or as some Anthropologists would say you run the risk of a Cargo Cult method. That is the idea that if one builds a runway in the middle of the Jungle a plane will land on it, and deliver lots of valuable stuff. If you ask peoples opinion they will say it looks like an airport, but it isn't and no plane will land on it.
You can use a qualitative method, and you can use quantitative method, you can use both, but it is important to keep the results separate. Both methods may help you build a strong basis of evidence for your solution, but they are separate pieces of evidence. Jared's Functional Personas as well as Don Normans Throw Away Personas *may *overcome this challenge of testability, the other solution is to use real people. If the Persona is a Hypothesis with the output being a scenario. The scenario is testable against if real people have that particular projected course of action. It is important that one applies some robust theory as if one does not it is possible to run aground rather like what has happened on Wall Street. Where they used untestable theories that seamed scientific but where not and lost lots of money. Or you end up like the Highlanders of Papa New Guinea spending allot of time building perfect airports in the middle of nowhere, and getting nothing in return. All the best James http://blog.feralabs.com 2008/12/30 Todd Zaki Warfel <[email protected]> > > On Dec 30, 2008, at 4:35 AM, James Page wrote: > > My argument before that Persona is not a valid method as there is no way to > validate if a persona reflects a real person applies to design-project-wide > personas, and may not apply to Functional Level Personas. > > > Once we've developed personas, we ask the stakeholders a few questions to > help validate them: > 1. Do you recognize a customer you've spoken to, or seen an email from? > 2. Can the sales person honestly say "Yeah, I've spoken to that person on > the phone, or had lunch with them?" > > It's important the personas are familiar to the stakeholder. The > stakeholder really needs to feel like they can see on of their existing or > target customers in the profile, activities, and behaviors. > > Additionally, we pass them back by the people we know, whom we used as an > input source for the personas, to validate them further. > > > Cheers! > > Todd Zaki Warfel > President, Design Researcher > Messagefirst | Designing Information. Beautifully > ---------------------------------- > *Contact Info* > Voice: (215) 825-7423Email: [email protected] > AIM: [email protected] > Blog: http://toddwarfel.com <http://toddwarfel/> > Twitter: zakiwarfel > ---------------------------------- > In theory, theory and practice are the same. > In practice, they are not. > > > > ________________________________________________________________ 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
