Comments on: How to Understand Your Users with Personas http://carsonified.com/blog/design/how-to-understand-your-users-with-personas/ Sat, 20 Mar 2010 00:35:05 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Lou Rosenfeld http://carsonified.com/blog/design/how-to-understand-your-users-with-personas/#comment-19160 Lou Rosenfeld Tue, 16 Mar 2010 03:52:54 +0000 http://carsonified.com/?p=3539#comment-19160 Hi Derek, Amazon is absolutely broken, but being (essentially) a monopoly means never having to say you're sorry. The book is most definitely in print, not POD (but a "real" book, with sewn bindings, four color interiors, and other great features), and can be purchased along with a digital copy here: http://www.rosenfeldmedia.com/books/mental-models/ Or, if you must, from Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk, though you'd make my day if you bought it directly from us. Thanks! Hi Derek, Amazon is absolutely broken, but being (essentially) a monopoly means never having to say you’re sorry.

The book is most definitely in print, not POD (but a “real” book, with sewn bindings, four color interiors, and other great features), and can be purchased along with a digital copy here: http://www.rosenfeldmedia.com/books/mental-models/

Or, if you must, from Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk, though you’d make my day if you bought it directly from us.

Thanks!

]]> By: Rick http://carsonified.com/blog/design/how-to-understand-your-users-with-personas/#comment-17176 Rick Mon, 14 Dec 2009 17:58:36 +0000 http://carsonified.com/?p=3539#comment-17176 Pretty fantastic, Brad. :) Our little studio just went through the rigors of coming up with and developing backgrounds on several personas for a major northwest client. (We posted about our experience here http://blog.bullseyecreative.net/customer-persona-development/) To be honest, it was a lot of fun and something I think the whole team looks forward to doing again. It was interesting that, based on a series of data results, patterns emerged that we were able to build into people that seemed wholly authentic. Looking back on it now, it's still hard to believe that these people we made don't actually exist. I think this is the reason persona use is increasing. They're easy customers to target. But seriously, we need more ponies on this site. Thanks. Pretty fantastic, Brad. :) Our little studio just went through the rigors of coming up with and developing backgrounds on several personas for a major northwest client. (We posted about our experience here http://blog.bullseyecreative.net/customer-persona-development/)

To be honest, it was a lot of fun and something I think the whole team looks forward to doing again. It was interesting that, based on a series of data results, patterns emerged that we were able to build into people that seemed wholly authentic. Looking back on it now, it’s still hard to believe that these people we made don’t actually exist. I think this is the reason persona use is increasing. They’re easy customers to target.

But seriously, we need more ponies on this site. Thanks.

]]> By: Jody http://carsonified.com/blog/design/how-to-understand-your-users-with-personas/#comment-16736 Jody Thu, 26 Nov 2009 14:10:23 +0000 http://carsonified.com/?p=3539#comment-16736 I want a ponie too! :) I want a ponie too! :)

]]> By: WIll http://carsonified.com/blog/design/how-to-understand-your-users-with-personas/#comment-16698 WIll Wed, 25 Nov 2009 08:00:22 +0000 http://carsonified.com/?p=3539#comment-16698 This is a very informative post and a very entertaining comic too, PONIES! ) This is a very informative post and a very entertaining comic too, PONIES! )

]]> By: Derek Pennycuff http://carsonified.com/blog/design/how-to-understand-your-users-with-personas/#comment-16667 Derek Pennycuff Mon, 23 Nov 2009 21:05:49 +0000 http://carsonified.com/?p=3539#comment-16667 Personas for "role playing" during usability testing is my graduate thesis topic in a nutshell. So far I've been able to turn up very little info on the idea. Nielsen seems to think it's a terrible idea due to the loss of authentic user experience. http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20050214.html While I respect Nielsen, his opinion isn't the same as data. There's a paper that looks at data from one of the Comparative Usability Evaluation studies (#4 I think) and they found that one team out performs expectations based on variables such as recruiting methodology, number of participants, and task coverage. http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1240839 There were 2 big differences in how this team operated. 1. They took a laptop out and about in a bit of a guerrilla style rather than in a lab. 2. Participants were given a persona and a scenario to play out during their test. So maybe one of those elements is responsible for the increased performance. Or maybe the combination of the 2. Or maybe it's a fluke. But it seemed like an easy enough thesis to test so I took it as my research topic. :) If anyone has further data on the topic, add my interest to Mauricio's and share it here please. Personas for “role playing” during usability testing is my graduate thesis topic in a nutshell. So far I’ve been able to turn up very little info on the idea. Nielsen seems to think it’s a terrible idea due to the loss of authentic user experience.

http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20050214.html

While I respect Nielsen, his opinion isn’t the same as data.

There’s a paper that looks at data from one of the Comparative Usability Evaluation studies (#4 I think) and they found that one team out performs expectations based on variables such as recruiting methodology, number of participants, and task coverage.

http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1240839

There were 2 big differences in how this team operated. 1. They took a laptop out and about in a bit of a guerrilla style rather than in a lab. 2. Participants were given a persona and a scenario to play out during their test.

So maybe one of those elements is responsible for the increased performance. Or maybe the combination of the 2. Or maybe it’s a fluke. But it seemed like an easy enough thesis to test so I took it as my research topic. :)

If anyone has further data on the topic, add my interest to Mauricio’s and share it here please.

]]> By: Derek Pennycuff http://carsonified.com/blog/design/how-to-understand-your-users-with-personas/#comment-16666 Derek Pennycuff Mon, 23 Nov 2009 20:43:16 +0000 http://carsonified.com/?p=3539#comment-16666 I wanted to buy Mental Models last week, but Amazon said it was out of print. Now I've had an excuse to dig into it further and I see how Rosenfeld's business model is essentially print on demand (correct me if I'm wrong) and this confuses Amazon when it comes to ideas such as "out of print". Glad to be able to put this back on my wish list. The comic is awesome too, btw. :) I wanted to buy Mental Models last week, but Amazon said it was out of print. Now I’ve had an excuse to dig into it further and I see how Rosenfeld’s business model is essentially print on demand (correct me if I’m wrong) and this confuses Amazon when it comes to ideas such as “out of print”. Glad to be able to put this back on my wish list.

The comic is awesome too, btw. :)

]]> By: Isaac Lewis http://carsonified.com/blog/design/how-to-understand-your-users-with-personas/#comment-16558 Isaac Lewis Tue, 17 Nov 2009 21:20:15 +0000 http://carsonified.com/?p=3539#comment-16558 As the above commenters said, I really like this as a teaching method. It'll be interesting to see where this goes - did anyone see _why's Poignant Guide to Ruby? Similar concepts (used comics to teach the Ruby programming language) but not quite as succesful IMO - the comics didn't really tie in to the material. This is good though. Brad, I've just posted your website to http://unistartups.slinkset.com/ , hopefully it'll give you a traffic boost ;) As the above commenters said, I really like this as a teaching method. It’ll be interesting to see where this goes – did anyone see _why’s Poignant Guide to Ruby? Similar concepts (used comics to teach the Ruby programming language) but not quite as succesful IMO – the comics didn’t really tie in to the material.

This is good though. Brad, I’ve just posted your website to http://unistartups.slinkset.com/ , hopefully it’ll give you a traffic boost ;)

]]> By: Neil Dennis http://carsonified.com/blog/design/how-to-understand-your-users-with-personas/#comment-16551 Neil Dennis Tue, 17 Nov 2009 15:40:14 +0000 http://carsonified.com/?p=3539#comment-16551 Well done Brad - a thoroughly entertaining and useful article.. illustration helps to make personas easier to understand. Well done Brad – a thoroughly entertaining and useful article.. illustration helps to make personas easier to understand.

]]> By: Abhijit Shirsath http://carsonified.com/blog/design/how-to-understand-your-users-with-personas/#comment-16431 Abhijit Shirsath Wed, 11 Nov 2009 17:01:30 +0000 http://carsonified.com/?p=3539#comment-16431 Awesome article! Awesome article!

]]> By: Shawn http://carsonified.com/blog/design/how-to-understand-your-users-with-personas/#comment-16222 Shawn Mon, 02 Nov 2009 18:42:16 +0000 http://carsonified.com/?p=3539#comment-16222 Wondering if anyone on this thread has experience proving the ROI on persona development? How do you typically go about communicating ROI benefits within a persona pitch and then measure once the personas have been developed? Wondering if anyone on this thread has experience proving the ROI on persona development? How do you typically go about communicating ROI benefits within a persona pitch and then measure once the personas have been developed?

]]>