Contextual Inquiry and Personas in Interaction Design

Contextual Inquiry and Personas in Interaction Design

IFI7156.DT Interaction Design Methods

Cooper, A., Reimann, R., & Cronin, D. (2007). About Face 3: The Essentials of Interaction Design. Indianapolis, IN: Wiley Publishing, Inc.

Personas as a design tool

• Determine what a product should do and how it should behave

• Communicate with stakeholders, developers and other designers

• Build consensus and commitment to the design

• Measure the design’s effectiveness

• Contribute to marketing

(Cooper, Reimann & Cronin, 2007)

Personas are based on research

• Interviews with stakeholders, subject matter experts, customers and users

• User observations

• Literature review

• Competitive reviews

Interviews

Guidelines for user interviews• Interview where the interaction happens

• Avoid a fixed set of questions

• Focus on the goal first, tasks second

• Avoid making the user a designer

• Avoid discussion of technology

• Avoid leading questions

• Ask for stories, demonstrations and a tour

• Direct the interview as new issues arise

• Interpretation: read between the lines

(Cooper et al., 2007)

Goal-oriented questions

• Goals — What makes a good day? A bad day?

• Opportunity — What activities currently waste your time?

• Priorities — What is most important to you?

• Information — What helps you make decisions?


System-oriented questions

• Function — What are the most common things you do with the product?

• Frequency — What parts of the product do you use most?

• Preference — What are your favorite aspects of the product? What drives you crazy?

• Failure — How do you work around problems?

• Expertise — What shortcuts do you employ?


Workflow-oriented questions

• Process — What did you do when you first came in today? And after that?

• Occurrence and recurrence — How often do you do this? What things do you do weekly or monthly, but not every day?

• Exception — What constitutes a typical day? What would be an unusual event?


Attitude-oriented questions

• Aspiration — What do you see yourself doing five years from now?

• Avoidance — What would you prefer not to do? What do you procrastinate on?

• Motivation — What do you enjoy most about your job (or lifestyle)? What do you always tackle first?


User observations

Planning

• Establish objectives and information requirements

• Establish the times, places, and people who will be observed

• Decide on the recording technique that you will use

Running• Make sure that those being observed are aware of

the study

• Run a pilot observation

• Try to be unobtrusive

• Take notes and clarify later, if needed

• If possible, take a photo of the observation area

• Write down first impressions immediately after the observation

Literature review

Literature review

• Business documents: marketing plans, brand strategy, market research, user surveys, customer support data

• Technology specifications

• Research articles

• Related news in media, reviews

• Related posts and discussions in social media

Competitive review

Reasons for competitive review

• Find out how other people solved the same design problems

• Validate desired features and priorities against a similar site

• Explore approaches to solving similar problems

(Brown, 2010)

Guidelines

• Focus: you can’t compare too many systems/features/problems

• Create a set of criteria for comparison

• Choose meaningful systems for comparison

Competitive review structure

• Summary: objectives, study questions, and criteria

• Conclusions: one sheet/slide per conclusion, with screenshot fragments

• Competitor profiles

Competitor profileBeatport.com Release Page

Beatport release page displays additional information that is important for dj’s.

What works:• Track length and BPM are displayed

on release page• Waveform and key are displayed on

track details page• Release description• More releases from the same label

What doesn’t work:• Release title is displayed in capital

letters• Price is displayed without taxes

Take-aways:• Display detailed metadata• Make metadata easy to copy• The system could recommend tracks

with compatible key, tempo and style

Personas

Age: 26

Education: Master student

Occupation: librarian

MariaMaria has studied information science and now she is doing her Masterʼs studies in interactive media. At the same time she has a full time job as a school librarian. Therefore she is interested in combining school assignments with her work as much as possible. At the same time she is a self-directed learner who likes to go in depth in topics that are interesting for her.

Goals:

Personalization: “It is hard to have a full time job and be a master student at the same time. If possible, then I try to choose assignments that can be connected with my work.”

Scaffolding: “I feel that often it is difficult to specify all the resources and actions that I have to make in order to achieve my learning objectives. Good examples from other learners help me to refine my contract.”

Awareness: “It was good that we had to review our learning contracts. This way I was constantly aware of my objectives and thinking about the strategy to achieve my goals.”

Photo by Alessandro Valli,taken from http://www.flickr.com/photos/liquene/4435467897/

(LeContract blog, 2010)

Persona’s elements

• Photo

• Background info (age, gender, computer, tech skills, disabilities, ...)

• Goals

• Information seeking styles

• Usability needs


Persona development process

1. Identify behavioral variables

2. Map interview subjects to behavioral variables

3. Identify significant behavior patterns

4. Synthesize characteristics and relevant goals

5. Check for redundancy and completeness

6. Expand description of attributes and behaviors

7. Designate persona types


Step 2: Map interview subjects to behavioral variablesAfter you are satisfied that you have identified the set of significant behavioral vari-ables exhibited by your interview subjects, the next step is to map each intervieweeagainst each variable. Some of these variables will represent a continuous range ofbehavior (for instance, from a computer novice to a computer expert), and a fewwill represent multiple discrete choices (for example, uses a digital camera versususes a film camera).

Mapping the interviewee to a precise point in the range isn’t as critical as identify-ing the placement of interviewees in relationship to each other. In other words, itdoesn’t matter if an interviewee falls at precisely 45% or 50% on the scale. There’soften no good way to measure this precisely; you must rely on your gut feelingbased on your observations of the subject. The desired outcome of this step is toaccurately represent the way multiple subjects cluster with respect to each signifi-cant variable (see Figure 5-4).

Figure 5-4 Mapping interview subjects to behavioral variables. This example isfrom an online store. Interview subjects are mapped across each behavioral axis.Precision of the absolute position of an individual subject on an axis is lessimportant than its relative position to other subjects. Clusters of subjects acrossmultiple axes indicate significant behavior patterns.

Step 3: Identify significant behavior patternsAfter you have mapped your interview subjects, look for clusters of subjects thatoccur across multiple ranges or variables. A set of subjects who cluster in six toeight different variables will likely represent a significant behavior pattern that willform the basis of a persona. Some specialized roles may exhibit only one significantpattern, but typically you will find two or even three such patterns.

Necessity only Entertainment

Service-oriented Price-oriented

User 3 User 2 User 1, 4, 5

User 3User 2 User 5User 1, 4

Chapter 5: Modeling Users: Personas and Goals 99

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Persona types

• Primary (1)

• Secondary (0...2)

• Supplemental

• Customer

• Served: non-users affected by the use of the product

• Negative


Primary persona

• Primary target for the design of an interface

• There can be only one primary persona for each interface

• Complex systems may have multiple interfaces and a differerent primary persona for each interface

Secondary persona

• Is mostly satisfied with the primary persona’s interface

• Has additional needs that are not in conflict with primary persona

Supplemental persona

• Not primary or secondary personas

• Their needs are completely satisfied by the combination of primary and secondary personas

• Typically created for satisfying stakeholders assumptions

Customer persona

• Addresses the needs of customers, not end users

• Typically treated as secondary personas

• In some cases, customer persona may be a primary persona for admin interface

Served persona

• Served personas do not use the product themself

• Served personas are effected by how other person uses the product

• Typically treated as secondary personas

Negative persona

• Specific types of users that the product is not designed for

• Example: tech-savvy early adopters

User goalsLife goals

• Be the best at what I do

• Learn all there is to know about this field

Experience goals

• Don’t feel stupid

• Don’t make mistakes

• Have fun

End goals

• Find the best price

• Process the customer’s order


Non-user goalsCustomer goals

• Be sure about the child’s safety

Corporate goals

• Increase market share

• Use resources more efficiently

Technical goals

• Support all major browsers

• Maintain consistency across platforms(Cooper et al., 2007)

Examples

FeedFordward remix your information environment

Persona: Laura, 11 June 2007

Laura Marsden

* 28 years old, engaged, female* PhD in environmental design and planning* Currently a lecturer in the School of Built Environment at University* Confident experimenter with the Internet but has a lot of gaps in her knowledge that keep cropping up and vexing her as she doesn't feel very 'technical'* Has used bibliographic tools in the past but prefers to rely on a known canon of classic works and textbooks on her bookshelf

"I need to know what my students are writing about, and how it relates to the 'real world'"

background

attributes* enthusiastic - possible early adopter* less experienced with computers and internet* less experienced in research

user needs* Keep up with students posts and be able to make comments related to them* keep up to date with new developments, especially new building projects and planning applications* generate new ideas for student activities* effective help for when stuck

Laura is a lecturer in Built Environment Studies at a traditional University. She's been experimenting with using blogs for student work and has found the experience really good, but has had problems keeping up with the sheer volume of posts. As a result she hasn't been commenting on or highlighting particular work in a consistent and methodical manner.

She's also aware that also she hasn't been keeping abreast of new developments, particularly local construction works and planning applications that would make good cases to look at with her students, but also with new developments and trends in urban planning generally.

Laura is very enthusiastic about using technology in her job, but thinks that the amount of time it takes her to work with students using her current approach will mean too much work for larger student groups.

profile

scenario needs feature behaviour

Laura decides to track what her students have been writing over the past week so she can decide whether to post a comment on their work. She decides rather than comment now she'll do it later when she has more quiet time available - there's some other work she has to do.

*Manage attention *Scan and Decide*Defer action

*Mixer *Radar*Context

Laura wants to set up her application so it can track her student's blogs and post to her own blog.

* Guidance Laura starts the application and begins filling in the information in the First Run Wizard. It asks her for the blogs she wants to monitor, and her blog she wants to post to. It asks her to define her contexts and she chooses "comment on student work for ..." for each cohort she is teaching.

Initially the Radar has a lot of items, and so she decides to try the Mixer. She adjusts upwards the slider for the course she is teaching tomorrow and slides down the others. The number of posts in the radar now looks a lot more manageable.

Laura scans the Radar and sees a good point made by one student, but which would be made better with an appropriate reference. She drags the item to her "comment on student work for..." context and continues scanning, adding a few more items as she goes.

* Wizard

She decides to write comments and publish them so that her students can see the comments.

*Editing control*Publishing control

*Context*Entry Editor*Conduits: AtomPP + Trackback

Working down the list in the "comment on student work for..." context, she creates a new Entry in and drags into it the Item she selected earlier - it appears in "references".

She writes a comment, and then saves the entry. She then drags the comment onto "Laura's Teaching Blog". The application publishes the comment, and sends a Trackback Ping to the student's blog refenced in the entry. The Entry alters its state to show it was published successfully.This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0

UK: England & Wales License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/uk/or send a letter to Creative Commons, 171 Second Street, Suite 300, San Francisco, California, 94105, USA.

(The FeedForward Blog, 2007)

Age: 34

Education: PhD student

Occupation: university lecturer

DianaDiana is a PhD student and university lecturer in educational sciences. She completed her Masterʼs as a biology teacher and worked in a school for several years. She was eager to try various pedagogical methods and finally decided to start PhD studies in educational sciences.

Now she is teaching a few courses in the university. One of the methods that she is using in her courses is a personal learning contract. She can really see how the learning contracts help some students to improve the way they learn. On the other hand for some students it is difficult to come up with a meaningful learning contract.

Goals:

Thinking in details: “I can give feedback to studentsʼ goals and help them to refine their learning contracts already in the beginning of the course. This encourages them to think in details.”

Planning the learning environment: “It is good to know what kind of resources and tools students are planning to use. This way I can design the learning environment according to their needs.”

Staying on track: “We are reviewing the learning contracts in the middle of the course. I can see what kind of progress the students have made and make necessary changes to the course.”Photo by Russell James Smith,

taken from http://www.flickr.com/photos/russelljsmith/7006464/


Age: 38

Education: Bachelorʼs degree, taking online courses from foreign universities

Occupation: photographer

CarlCarl has completed BA in computer science. He worked as a programmer for more than a decade. Carl is interested travelling, photography, history and foreign cultures. He is also an active user of Web 2.0 environments.

With years of experience he has become quite good photographer. A few years ago he decided to quit his programming job and started to work as a freelancer wedding photographer. Now he has more time for hobbies.

He has found out that quite a few foreign universities provide online courses in foreign cultures, history, etc. He likes the fact that he can study many interested topics but on the other hand he is worried about the lack of community feeling in online courses.

Goals:

Social networking: “I think that collaboration with other participants is very important in e-learning courses. Learning contracts help me to find other people with whom I have similar learning goals.”

Collaboration: “I realized that learning contracts are specially valuable for group work. This way we can easily divide roles and responsibilities in a group.”

Photo by greenkozi,taken from http://www.flickr.com/photos/themacinator/3576296437/


Age: 58

Education: PhD

Occupation: professor

JakobJakob is a professor of industrial design. He has been working in the university for almost 30 years. As a designer and researcher he has participated in many R&D projects but his real love is teaching.

In last few years Jakob has decided to spend less time on projects and travelling. This means that he has more time for preparing his courses and trying out different things. He has experimented with blogs and social software. In his last course he decided to try personal learning contracts. It took quite a lot of time but he hopes that learning contracts will help him to give a more personal learning experience for his students.

Goals:

Adjusting the course: “I would like to know what the students expect to learn in my course. Then I can adjust the course assignments according to their needs.”

Personalized support: “I want to give more personalized guidance and support for my students.”

Fair grading: “I donʼt like grading but in some courses I am required to do it. I have found that learning contracts help me on fair grading. I rely on learning contracts when I negotiate grades with my students.”

Photo by Jesse Courtemanche,taken from http://www.flickr.com/photos/jesse757/4170721132/


Some suggestions

Some suggestions

• Start brainstorming with sticky notes

• Keep certain persons in mind but combine their goals and descriptions into personas

• Mindmapping helps when writing persona descriptions

EduFeedr personas

Primary persona

Examples

Teemu

Hans

Mart

Secondary persona

ExamplesTerje

Kairit

Supplemental personas

Goals

To get a quick overview of latest posts in the course

Description

34 years old lecturer, long time doctoral student, has background in education but is quite technically savvy, early adopter of new technologies, has long experience in

online learning, wantʼs to try out something different in each course, is participating in several projects and

travelling quite often, has a constant lack of time, often reads the blog posts from his iphone but is planning to write comments later, sometimes leaves the laptop at work

and writes comments from his iPad. Understands that the technology may have certain limitations when it is still

under development.

To give better feedback for the students

To have multiple ways for browsing the course

Teacher

ExamplesVarje

Heikki

Student

Examples

Maris

Elyna

Goals

To create a functional learning community

To give support and feedback for all students

To use course data for research purposes

Description

28 years old PhD student, teaching her second online course, average computer user, experienced in using web 2.0 tools, very systematic, wants to use course data for research purposes. Wantʼs to have a reliable system. Is using desktop RSS

reader in addition to EduFeedr.

Goals

Description

Goals

Not to spend to much time on managing the course

To make students to submit their assignments on time

To be sure that the system is reliable

Description

Teacher in a vocational school, has some experience both in using Moodle and in using social software. Wantʼs to have his first blog-based course. Is not using RSS

reader.

To find inspiration from other student blogs

To explore other open courses

Customer personaEducational technologist

Examples

Krista

Marge

Marko

Negative persona

ExamplesAnne

Goals

To have one learning platform that satisfies all her needs

To customize the learning platform according to her taste and needs

Goals

Description

To get teachers using the system

To be sure that the system is reliable

Not to spend too much time on supporting the users

...

...

Description...

Ilya

To get statistics about the use in their institution

Finding photos

• Royalty free photos: http://www.sxc.hu

• Creative Commons licensed photos: http://www.flickr.com/creativecommons/by-2.0/

http://www.sxc.hu

http://www.flickr.com/creativecommons/by-2.0/

References• Brown, D. M. (2010). Communicating Design: Developing Web Site

Documentation for Design and Planning (2nd ed.). Berkley, CA: New Riders.

• Cooper, A., Reimann, R., & Cronin, D. (2007). About Face 3: The Essentials of Interaction Design. Indianapolis, IN: Wiley Publishing, Inc.

• The FeedForward Blog (2007). How Laura uses FF. http://blogs.cetis.ac.uk/feedforward/2007/10/18/how-laura-uses-ff/

• LeContract blog (2010). http://blog.lecontract.org

http://blogs.cetis.ac.uk/feedforward/2007/10/18/how-laura-uses-ff/

http://blog.lecontract.org

Photos• Nicolas Nova, http://www.flickr.com/photos/nnova/2081056587/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/nnova/2081056587/

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

Hans Põldoja [email protected]

Interaction Design Methods http://ifi7156.wordpress.com

Tallinn University School of Digital Technologies

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

mailto:[email protected]

http://ifi7156.wordpress.com

Contextual Inquiry and Personas in Interaction Design

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