Persona
The persona represents one of the key tools in interaction design introduced by Alan Cooper (1999). Each persona is a fictitious aggregate and a representation of target users [1] : “a precise description of a hypothetical user and his or her goals, and it represents the user throughout the whole design process” [2] . The basis for creating personas are interviews and observations in the pre-design phase and every persona is carefully described as well as given a name and a face (for a detailed description of a design project, using personas see [2]). Merholz et al. [3] explain that the most efficient personas “tell their story in their own words, often using quotes from actual research participants”. Cooper et al. [4] argue that “although personas are depicted as specific individuals, because they function as archetypes, they represent a class or type of user of a specific interactive product. A persona encapsulates a distinct set of behaviour patterns regarding the use of a particular product (or analogous activities if a product does not yet exist), which are identified through the analysis of interview data, and supported by supplemental quantitative data as appropriate.” For a detailed analysis of personas and their potential benefits to the design process, see [1] and [4].
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Miaskiewicz, Tomasz, and Kozar Kenneth A. 2011. Personas and user-centered design: How can personas benefit product design processes? Design Studies 32: 417-430: 418
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Blomquist, Åsa, and Mattias Arvola. 2002. Personas in Action: Ethnography in an Interaction Design Team. NordiCHI. Short Papers: 197-200:197
- ↑ Merholz, Peter, Todd Wilkens, Brandon Schauer, and David Verba. 2008. Subject to Change: Creating Great Products and Services for an Uncertain World. Beijing, Cambridge: O’Reilly: 75.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Cooper, Alan, Robert Reimann, and Dave Cronin. 2007. About Face 3: The Essentials of Interaction Design.Indianapolis, Indiana: Wiley: 82
