What Personas are why and how to use them

1What the Personas are - Stefano Trojani
Yes, but "WHAT ARE" Personas?
Before starting any project on a website, it is
important to understand the needs of users. it is
therefore possible to identify the features and
functionality that will make your website a
success, like design (a user support) and analysis
of the objectives that the site aims.
There are many ways to identify user
requirements: usability testing, interviewing users,
discussions with those responsible for the
corporate business or conduct sample surveys.
However, a technique that has grown in
popularity recently is the use of personas: the
development of types of users to guide and test
the design and navigation of a web service.

2
Personas are users of a website that
embody the needs of large groups of end
users: in terms of objectives and personal
characteristics.
The Personas act as real users for
decisions and feedback on the
functionality of the design.
The Personas identify the motivations of
the users, expectations and objectives of
creating behavior
They bring to life "abstract" users, with
the introduction of a name, a biography
and often a photo.
Although the personas are fictitious, they
are based on knowledge of real users. E
'need to do extensive research for the
creation of personas to impersonate the
real user groups
… And SO?
What the Personas are - Stefano Trojani

3
The advantages of using Personas (1)
Using Personas allows the development team to take
the role of its members.
In this way, the team will focus on supporting users
design goals, rather than being driven by the ideas of
the team members or those of the leaders.
The introduction of personas will bring the following
advantages:
• The objectives and user requirements become a
common point for the development team
• The development team can focus on the design of a
manageable set of characters knowing that they
represent the majority of users needs.

4
The advantages of using Personas (2)
• Personas are relatively quick to deploy and can be replaced
and changed with ease even during construction.
• Avoid the development team to create what the "leaders"
rather ask to what users want
• Internal disagreements on design decisions can be
smoothed out with the help of PERSONAS
• Navigation and wireframes / mokup can be constantly
evaluated based on personas, reducing the frequency of
usability testing (long and costly).
Personas…

5
Persona are not ALL ...
there is also the Business
Although the personas will bring
many benefits will not be enough
to ensure the success of the
website or a product online.
Goals of the business need to be
considered, because if the website
or the service does not meet the
expectations of business, then it is
completely useless.
Example? Business objective?
an e-commerce site is proposed to
easily make online sales.

6
Personas are market segments
The market segmentation is a marketing strategy that
allows you to divide the market into individual units
(target) which will then be re-aggregated based
on variables in social and economic groups more or less
broad: said just "segments".
The division of the market into segments is
done using different said bases
"segmentation variables" which
are:
geographical
geographic area
Population…
sociodemographic
age
Sex
Occupation...
psychographic
lifestyle
Personality…
Behavioural
benefits sought (quality, price ...)
attitude (positive, negative ...)
awareness (informed, misinformed ...)

7
Personas at the end are the
"Personification of the market segments"
The market segments or the study of the
catchment areas are invaluable tools to
identify the personas groups most likely to
use a website.
However, market segmentation does not
help to provide useful guidance to the
design of a site.
Market segmentation can help to identify
the profiles of the types of users who will
use the service.
Yet rarely it provides the richness and the
additional value that can give the use of
personas.

8
TARGET vs.PERSONAS
TARGET:The market segmentation
could identify users of the hosting service are mostly
males, 30-40anni, technically competent, belonging
to a Web Agency.
With the help of PERSONASwe
notice that 33 years MARCO is absolutely not a
sociable person and he is very important to have
comprehensive FAQ to avoid contact CUS Care.
It is also not patient and want to use the service
immediately (lower activation times).
Rather orientation for another competitor.
.

9
Find the lowest common denominator
to identify Personas (1)
When explaining for the first time that a website can be
designed around only a handful of personas, some people
remain bewildered.
How can two, three or four profiles contain all the user
community needs? Often use many personas means only
introduce confusion.
For example after interviewing 40 people in the company and
wrote their demands for an internet service or website
information derived may be patchy or even contradict each
other.
The use of Personas cuts this confusion.
They allow you to be able to identify distinct groups of users
and create users to represent each type of user group. It
'important to design a set of personas that meets all users. The
creation of personas should be on the basis of existing people
and their way of approaching to an online environment.
Draft of a Personas

Find the lowest common denominator
to identify Personas (2)
The purpose of the research for the creation of perronas is
to identify trends or user behavior patterns, expectations
and motivations to form the basis of the characters.
One of the best ways to collect this data is to interview
real users.
You may need to interview more people if there are very
different needs. When you arrive at the same answer
several times, it's time to quit.
10
Finished Personas

Tips for interviews
to create Personas
11
• Interview with representatives of companies that
interact often with the users. These people have had
hundreds if not thousands of interactions with end users
and are already aware of behavioral patterns of users.
• Reviewing market research and interview specialist made
by your company on the market.
• If you design a website, talk to friends and relatives who
are users of the current site, or potential users of the
new site. are also fine dinners or lunches.
• Imagine celebrities like actors, (Brad Pitt, Gillian
Anderson), famous people (Queen of England) or
fictional characters (Homer Simpson)
Examples of Personas inspired celebrities

Templates
12
On the web there are many templates of Personas. This does not mean that we must be satisfied
with the work done by others.
Based on what we want to test you must have more or less information.
Examples of Personas taken online cards

YES… But practically?
13
Here's a card of a
personas.
Let's see how it is
structured

The 4 areas of the sheet
14
The board is
divided into 4
main areas.
1) The name
2) The emotional
space
3) The PRO / VS
skills
4) The Trade Off
the pesonas
(Features)

The EMOTIONAL space
15
The EMOTIONAL
space itself
contains three
elements:
1) The picture
2) The slogan
3) Biography

the SKILLS
16
The skills
1) Personal
data
2) PRO
3) AGAINST
4) Target

FEATURES
17
Trade Off Sliders
o Caratteristiche
1) Technical
skills
2) Patience
3) Natured
4) Budget
5) Expectations
PositivoNegativo

The FEATURES in a TRADE OFF format
18
While there are "levers" it is not possible to put the cursor in any space. Would only create confusione.
NOTE: the trade off is not "expert - not expert: the patient - not the patient" ... but synergistic opposite behavior
PositiveNegative
It does not have an opinion about it
50%75% 50% 75%
25% 25%
Neutral
Extremely favorable to the business
that we testIt could be a problem

Example of use of Personas
21
DESIGNER
DEVELOPER MIDDLE LEVEL
PROFESSIONAL
HOSTING
Let’s imagine what would happen if these PERSONAS was interested in an hosting service ...

Example of use of Personas
22
STUDENTMERCHANT
MIDDLE LEVEL
PROFESSIONAL
E-commerce
Let’s imagine what would happen if these PERSONAS was interested in an e-comemrce service ...

23
…THANKS;-)

What Personas are why and how to use them

More Related Content

Similar to What Personas are why and how to use them (20)

More from Stefano Trojani (17)

Recently uploaded (20)

What Personas are why and how to use them