How do we ensure that our Web sites actually give users what they need and deliver results? Personas bring user research to life and make it actionable, ensuring we're making the right decisions based on the right information. Discover the latest techniques for creating personas, including advice on conducting user interviews, new methods for applying quantitative research such as surveys and log file analysis, approaches for generating persona segmentation, and fun ideas for making your personas real. It's time to take personas to the next level. Presentation by Steve Mulder.

1. Making Personas Work for Your Site Steve Mulder

2. … and so that’s the plan for redesigning the web site. We believe this strategy will increase revenue enough to pay for itself within six months. Any questions?

3. What happened to feature x? In our experience, feature x isn’t worth the investment. our customers don’t want it.

4. Hmm. That’s not what we discussed in the kick-off meeting.

6. Our contextual analysis revealed that even in critical use cases, feature x was not part of the typical customer’s mental model. The presence of feature x even produced cognitive dissonance among our most loyal customers base, where the opportunity score was below 0.7. the roi simply isn’t there. I still think customers would use feature x. I’d use it.

7. Yes, but are all of our customers just like you?

8. No, but I know what my customers want, and this is important.

9. But our users don’t need it. that’s what the analysis shows.

10. forget everything you know about users. we need to be innovative!

11. But innovation begins with first understanding what our customers really need.

12. are you saying I don’t understand my customers?!

13. No, but our analysis…

14. Feature x stays in scope. Okay, are we done?

16. Business results depend on satisfying users You are not your user Learning about users requires direct contact Knowledge about users must be actionable Decisions should be based on users

19. Personas bring focus

20. Personas build empathy

21. Personas encourage consensus

22. Personas create efficiency

23. Personas lead to better decisions Personas for Design Information architecture, interaction design, visual design, content development, user testing Personas for Marketing Framework for marketing campaigns, branding, messaging, market research Personas for Strategy Framework for business decisions, offerings, channel usage, features

24. Creating Personas

25. The Landscape of User Research and Testing User Interviews QUALITATIVE (INSIGHTS) GOALS & ATTITUDES (ASPIRATIONAL) BEHAVIORS (ACTUAL) User Surveys Usability Testing Site Traffic/ Log File Analysis Eye Tracking Field Studies (Contextual Inquiry) Shadow Shopping (Shop-Along) Intercepts Customer Support Data Card Sorting Focus Groups Diary/Journal Studies Participatory Design User Advisory Panel Automated Usability Testing User Reports Collages QUANTITATIVE (VALIDATION) A/B Testing

26. Qualitative Personas

29. Segmentation Goals Behaviors Attitudes

36. Qualitative Personas with Quantitative Validation

37. Surveys

45. Quantitative Personas

46. Quantitative Segmentation

47. Quantitative Segmentation

48. Quantitative Segmentation

49. Making Personas Real

50. Key Differentiators

51. Name

52. Photo

54. Personal Information

55. Domain-Specific Information

56. Computer and Internet Usage

57. Profile

58. Quote

59. Business Objectives

61. Scenarios Francis and Michael have agreed that she’ll take charge of learning more about the home-buying process. She goes online, does a Google search for “Atlanta real estate,” and follows a link to the site’s home page. She sees that she can search for houses from the home page, so just for fun, she does a quick Atlanta search to see what kinds of houses show up. There are lots of houses in many different neighborhoods, and she easily narrows her results down to the area where she and Michael live, using a map. There are still many results, and she’s not quite sure which search options to use to narrow the search further. Then she notices a link for first-time home buyers and follows, it hoping for basic how-to information. The link takes Francis to a step-by-step tutorial that explains the whole process, and she immediately feels like she’s found the right site from which to begin her house search. She carefully reads some articles for first-time home buyers, taking notes as she reads. She bookmarks other articles she wants to go back and read later. She also comes across the site’s calculator and starts trying different combinations of numbers to find out what she and Michael can afford. She particularly likes the glossary of terms so that she can finally figure out what “points” are and learn more about different types of mortgages. After an hour and a half of reading, her brain is full, and she shuts her computer down for the day, feeling like she got an excellent start. The next day, she comes back to the site to look up information specific to Atlanta neighborhoods and finds lots of information on each. She’s able to focus on five neighborhoods that look particularly good. The fun begins that night, when she takes Michael through all that she has learned, and they set up a regular schedule for looking at online house listings.

62. Using Personas

63. Persona Document

64. Persona Cards

65. Lifesize Cutouts

66. Persona Cubicle

68. Business Strategy

69. Features and Functionality

71. Features and Functionality: Prioritizing

72. Structure

75. Structure: Information Architecture

76. Structure: Information Architecture

77. Structure: Navigation

78. Structure: Site Search

80. Content: Word Cloud

81. Design

82. Design: Mood Board

83. Design: Appealing to All Personas