From Interaction Design: Beyond Human-Computer Interaction, 4th ed:
Personas (Cooper, 1999) are rich descriptions of typical users of the product under development on which the designers can focus and for which they can design products. They don’t describe specific people, but rather they are realistic, and not idealized. Any one persona represents a synthesis of a number of real users who have been involved in data gatheringand it is based on a set of user profiles. Each persona is characterized by a unique set of goals relating to the particular product under development, rather than a job description or a simple demographic. This is because goals often differ among people within the same job role or the same demographic.
In addition to their goals, a person will include a description of the user’s behavior, attitudes, activities, and environment. These items are all specified in some detail. For instance, instead of describing someone simply as a competent sailor, the persona includes that they have completed a Day Skipper qualification, have more th an 100 hours of sailing experience in and around European waters, and get irritated by other sailors who don’t follow the navigation rules. Each persona has a name, often a photograph, and some personal details such as what they do as a hobby. It is the addition of precise, credible details that helps designers to see the personas as real potential users, and hence as people for whom they can design (pp. 403-404).
Through the application of reading materials and completion of this project in light of its corresponding rubric:
You are going to create a set of questions to use during a qualitative face-to-face interview of representative users to the College of Medicine website. You’ll want to Google around for questions to get a feel for the kinds of questions to ask and then modify it to fit the domain and research goals. The domain is the field or category of the (in this case) site under study. The research goal (in this case) is to determine the kind of content and organization that will meet user needs when visiting the College of Medicine Website. If you use a question from something you find online, cite the author and provide a URL. Submit your questions and their references as part of your project document.
Your personas should be in narrative form (not simply bullet points) and should include a photo, name, and personal details that bring the persona to life. Each persona must include likes, dislikes, and goals for visiting the site and be referenced to the analytics data when possible. You may find it easier to begin your persona creation using the table format described in the first article and then writing a story around those details.
Remember! Personas aren’t useful unless they accurately reflect groups of actual users. For each decision you make about your persona, give me a footnote that details the information you used to come up with that element.
Your submission includes:
Submit one single PDF to D2L containing everything in your project that addresses each of the points listed above. If the submitted document is not a PDF, does not include these items, or both, it will not be graded until it does. Remember you need to do the grading declaration prior to submitting the assignment.
The criteria listed below are the target for your grading declaration. You are encouraged to go above and beyond what is described here.
Mechanics: No errors in spelling or grammar. All properly formatted citations.
Timeliness: Submitted prior to due date.
Demographic Survey Form - Attention to Detail: Survey has all required elements.
Demographic Survey Form - Question Formats: All questions are delivered using an appropriate question format given the data being sought.
Demographic Survey Form - Student-Authored Question: Question authored by the student covers a user experience topic.
Interview Questions - Attention to Detail: all 10 questions are included.
Interview Questions - Specific to Domain and Research Goals: All questions are specific to the domain and research goals listed in the assignment.
Interview Questions - Question Types: No questions are loaded, use jargon, closed, or ask more than one thing at a time. Questions get at user likes, dislikes, and goals.
Personas - Attention to Detail: Personas submitted contain all required elements (likes, dislikes, name, photo, personal details, history, etc) and justification for those choices.
Personas - Linked to Analytics: Personas reference analytics data and the story they tell matches the available data.
Personas - Visual Design: Personas are presented with information grouped and ordered for easy understanding. The design is visually appealing.