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User ModelingLecture # 7
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User Interface Design Process
NeedsAssessment
Competitive Analysis
PersonaDevelop
Task Analysis/Use Cases
MockDesign
WorkflowDesign
ConceptualDesign
WireframeDesign
Formative Evaluation
MockupDesign
PrototypeDesign
Requirements Development
Design
Evaluation
MockDesignSummative Evaluation
Effective User Interface Is an interface that matches user characteristics
Enables the user to perform his or her task effectively and efficiently Thus achieving her/his intentions/goals
Is suitable for use in its intended environment
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A Design Catering to Conservative Attitudes When It Comes To Money
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A Design Catering to Fun Loving Teenagers
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A Design Catering to subdued attitudes of seniors – Colorful, but quiet
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Our First Step in UI Design Identify and Describe Our User
Users Are Everywhere
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The Challenge – Narrow Down Potential Users
• To maximize the fit between our application and the users we need to design for a very clearly defined group of users
• A design for everyone is often a design for no one
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Also: Identify Direct and Indirect Users
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NursePatient
DirectUsers Indirect
Users
e.g., Need to support large font
Design that Ignores Secondary UsersGabriel Spitz
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Should a patient sign this document too?
Before and After ConsideringSecondary Users
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Our Goal – Identify Focal Groups
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All potential users Focal users
Criteria for Selecting Focal Groups Select 2-3 types of users or user roles to support based on:
Type and category of the application we build Its business goals and objectives Business Case
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Describing the User Persona – A Design Tool
Once the focal groups are identified, we need to describe the user
Description of the user in general terms such as All Students, Every Senior Person is not helpful It does not help us make effective design decisions
To support effective design we need to have in mind real users and envision the way they will react to a feature or design decision in our UI
A good tool to help us is User Persona
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What is a Persona?
User Persona is an instantiation of a hypothetical user
It is a description of a typical user along with stories about how s/he might use an application to meet his/her goals
It is an archetype of the user which will help guide decisions about the product and its characteristics
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Example of a User Persona
Example of User PersonaGabriel Spitz
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the goal of persona is to bring the user to life and use it to design and communicate
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Use of Personas in Design
Examine a design feature in the context of our persona Will this feature meet the goals of our persona Is the feature important enough to our persona to justify
the development costs How should the feature be characterized to provide
optimal usability for our persona
Methods for Creating User Personas
Use ethnographic interviews with real people Immersive observation and direct 1:1 interviews
Focus on what users know and capable of achieving Gather indirect information from marketing, sales, and
technical support people They have a good understanding of who are the users and what
capabilities they poses
Make sure their information is current
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Content of User Persona
User Persona includes in its description Name Role and job title Description of relevant goals, motivations, pain points Quotes and stories in the person language Relevant demographic information User characteristics Description of primary activities
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Design Questions for a Persona
Persona should inform the designer about: Specific knowledge they have of our application
E.g. Would the term “Enter” be meaningful to them Domain knowledge
E.g. Credit vs. Debit How often will they use our application
E.g. Once a month Where will they be when using the application
E.g. Outside the bank What expectations they have when using our application
E.g. Can take out unlimited amount of money All of the above help us anticipate the characteristics of the application
we need to consider
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Guidelines for Creating Persona
Focus on behavioral pattern, not job description Keep persona set small Focus on the user not the buyer (of the application) Add life to persona
Use the right goals Persona must be specific to the design problem Kim Goodwin; http://www.uie.com/articles/perfecting_personas
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@ Focus on Behavioral Pattern Not Job Description
It is a narrative that describes the flow of someone’s day It includes a description of their skills, attitude, and
environment It helps answer questions about job description, not
specific tasks - e.g., are people multitasking, are there lots of interruptions
Sometimes for a given job we need several personas e.g., an experienced user and a novice one. This is because skill level here makes a big difference
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@ Keep Persona Set Small
The goal of persona is to provide context for decision Too many personas will impose a memory load and
reduce their effectiveness Limit the number of personas to distinct behavioral
patterns, not demographic E.G., A manager and an employee will have different
behavioral patterns when it comes to CRM, but probably not for email
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@ Focus on the User not the Buyer
Marketing people focus on people that bring in most money or a growing segment of the population
Design needs to focus on the people that will use the application, not those that will buy it E.G., in commercial setting the buyer and therefore the
target of Marketing is the executive. The user is the technician
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@ Add Life to Persona
Focus on goals, behavior patterns, environment, and attitudes first
Than add a few personal details to reinforce the persona characteristics
Remember Persona is first a design tool
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@ Use the Right Goals Each persona should include 3-4 goals Goals are things users want to accomplish
tasks are the way to accomplish goals
Select goals that are related to or will help the design Thus goals should be with respect of what an end
user would like to get out using the tool – Outcome
E.G., Passengers do not want a boarding pass;They want to get home
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@ Make Persona Unique to a Design Problem
We can not use persona that was created for a different domain.
Within each domain personas will have different goals and different behavioral patterns
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Benefits of Using Personas
Help understand the users - who they are, what do they know about our tasks help design the product
Clarifies assumptions - use scenarios help team members share and formalize assumptions about users and usage
Fully explore the design - use scenarios help explore important aspects of the design
Provide context for reviewers - when trying to evaluate the design
Example of Relevant User Information
Check In Kiosk Users’ goals – e.g. Get home fast Users’ Characteristics – e.g. Limited language skills,
forgetful (I don’t know my flight number), uptight, etc. Usage environment– e.g. Standing vs. sitting, heavy bag
on shoulder, infrequent use
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Value of Creating Persona Allow us to find out what we do not know about our users
Limits the set of tasks and jobs that we need to analyze
Help specify the types of usability goals we should establish for the applications
Will impact UI design via the usability goals
Constrain and direct the selection of users types for usability evaluation
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In Summery - We Create Personas
Help us understand why our users are not us.
It is not for-us-by-us
Identify and prioritize features and functionality
Identify users for testing
Understanding users is critical to getting value out of SW
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