On Fri, May 29, 2009 at 12:25 PM, Andrei Herasimchuk < [email protected]> wrote:
> > On May 29, 2009, at 11:31 AM, Robert Reimann wrote: > > Personas suffer (in some circles) from the erroneous perception that they >> are based on substantially (or entirely) fictitious data. >> This is a straw man argument, and one that you are indirectly referencing >> and lending credence to. >> > > I disagree that there's an erroneous perception out there. Personas suffer > from two things in my experience: > > 1) There are too many people who *do* make up information -- in part or in > whole -- when they write them, then use that document as a justification for > opinion based or highly subjective decisions, which basically does double > damage to the design process and the end product. I've seen it firsthand too > many times to count, and I still see it happening all of the time. I don't disagree with this observation. I just wouldn't call those made-up profiles personas. So there is also an erroneous set of practices surrounding persona creation that requires education. Hopefully Kim Goodwin's new book will help remedy some of the damage caused by sloppy practice. > 2) There are too many people use personas as a replacement for being > involved in the research itself. In reading Henry Dreyfuss and listening to > some of the core proponents of people who clarify what personas are all > about on this list, it is clear that the act of being involved in the > research is the point, not the documenting of said research. > > I also agree with the issue raised, if not completely with the conclusion drawn. Personas are a way of pre-processing the design problem by experiencing and analyzing the behaviors and mental models of potential users. Participation in the data gathering is critical to this, as you suggest. I wouldn't however go so far as to say that the models generated from the research are not the point; they are powerful mnemonic and communication tools. If you are not working with a team, or your clients never question your design decisions, then perhaps the communication aspect of personas is superfluous, but otherwise I wouldn't underestimate it for the average practioner. Robert. ________________________________________________________________ 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
