Download Users and User Classes

Web Site Design:
Early Research
IWM14 Information
Services for the Web
Users, user classes & personas /LP
Users, user classes &
personas
• Identify your end-users
• Identify relevant characteristics
• Draw out implications of user
characteristics for your design
• Represent key users as personas
Users, user classes & personas /LP
Your turn
List some users for an academic
conference Web site…
Users, user classes & personas /LP
Users and their
characteristics
“The remarkable diversity of human abilities, backgrounds,
cognitive styles and personalities challenges the
interaction designer. A pre-schooler playing a graphic
computer game is a long way from a reference librarian
doing bibliographical searches for anxious and hurried
patrons. Similarly a professional programmer using a new
operating system is a long way from a highly trained and
experienced air traffic controller. Finally, a student learning
a computer-assisted instruction session is a long way from
a hotel reservations clerk serving customers for many
hours per day.”
Ben Shneiderman, Designing the User Interface
Users, user classes & personas /LP
What are the specific distinctions you
can unpack from Shneiderman's
neatly designed pairs of users?
They include at least:
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age
domain experience
computer experience
degree of pressure
frequency of use
freedom of choice in system use
direct vs indirect use…
Users, user classes & personas /LP
Your turn
List potentially interesting characteristics
of two types of user identified for the
academic conference Web site.
Users, user classes & personas /LP
Implications of user characteristics?
Postgraduate student
Characteristic
Direct/indirect
Education/literacy skills
Language skills
Domain knowledge
Existing knowledge
Discretionary/mandatory
Training?
Users, user classes & personas /LP
For this user
Implication
Personas
How to make sure the user isn't forgotten/made elastic?
Pin them to the wall, in the form of personas
• for core user classes, describe a specific individual who
might be central to that class
• define - gender, age, personality, background, hobbies,
work role and so on.
• assign name and graphic - cartoon, photo, magazine
cutout
• during design process, refer to the persona(s) rather
than speaking about a user
Users, user classes & personas /LP
Personas for conference site
Title - Heading
1
Heading 2
Normal text
Heading 3
1. Bullet point
Skip Whitby heads a Research
Program on Digital Television at
the University of Carpentaria in
Northern Australia. Obviously he'd
love to come to the conference,
but departmental travel funds are
tight this year. He's hoping to find
a lot of useful information on the
Web site.
Users, user classes & personas /LP
Personas for conference site
Martin Jensen is a lecturer in Social
Studies at the University of Lilleborg
in Denmark. He may bring his
girlfriend and 2 year old daughter
with him and make a holiday of their
time in the UK. The family are strict
vegetarians. He's never been to the
UK before and has no idea where
Brighthelmstone is.
Users, user classes & personas /LP