INFO440 - L04 - 10/12/2004
Notes by Egaas, Fortier, and Prins

Talk about last quizzes.
General Quiz feedback by Ammy


Who is Wodke?
    > What's her background?
        - Information architect (IA) since dawn of dotcom era
        - Founded "Boxes and Arrows" (online magazine)
        - President of the Asilomar institute of Information Architecture
        - Chaired 4th annual ASIS&T summit on IA
    > What's her angle?

What are personas and what do they do?
    > Fictional individual that represents a market segment or a user to design for
    > Add a name to what a user wants; not just a list of requirements
    > Archetypical users who exist mainly to be design targets
        - "Represent the needs of larger groups of users." - Calabria
    > An actual but virtual person.
    > A way to humanize the design process
        - "Identify the user motivations, expectations and goals responsible for driving online behavior." - Calabria

What is the basic personal creation process?
    > Research
        - Playing Barbies
            * Giving them a character on your own
        - Deep understanding of the user base
            * Where you want to get to; your goal
        - Demographics
        - Their story
    > Summarize
        - Goals, Workflow, Demographics, etc..
        - Specific, relevant, universal
    > Brainstorm (sketch)
        - Caveat: Could take a long time with a lot of people involved
        - he encourages us to use them
        - no commitment is required with what happens, just ideas
        - a "gentle bringing together of facts"
    > Prioritize and cull (refine)
        - filtering out important facts vs unimportant fluff
    > Make them real
        - Personality
        - Picture
        - Name
        - Goals
        - Image (from stock)
    // From Discussion \\
    > Compile it all together
    > Brainstorming with team players
    > First law of design: "Everyone has an opinion"
    > Good listeners make good persona makers (sit in someone else's shoes)

What are personas used for?
    > Generate a specific sense of audience
        - One audience for each specific persona
    > Focus the team
    > Simplify marketing research
    > Help prioritize and arbitrate features
    > Group features by audience
    // From Discussion \\
    > Balance between different groups
    > Created stories... puts everybody on the same page

How we will do personas
    _We_are:_ iSchool Student Services
    _We'll_build:_ INFO program assistance system
    > Get a partner
    > Do an interview
    > Do a sketch
    > Refine the sketch
    > Make it real

The Interview
    > Demographics
    > Attitudes
    > Experience
    > Needs and desires

How to Interview
    > Passionate dispassion: be engaged but not committed to an opinion.
    > Remember it is about them not you
    > Probe, dig, and follow-up
    > Lead (without a destination)
    > Accurately record the facts
    > Reiterate and rephrase
    > Get evidence

Interview: Who is she (demographics)?
    > Job or position
    > Age
    > Sex
    > Birth place
    > Education
    > Hobbies

Interview: Attitudes
    > Beliefs about us
    > Styes
    > How much they need us
    > How much influence we have

Interview: Experience
    > Systems like ours
    > What the use now
    > Computer Savvy
    > Subject matter
    
Needs and desires
    > What are the:
        - Necessary features
        - Desired features
        - Wow features
    > User frequency
    > Use duration
    
Refine the sketch
    > Who she is (1-2 paragraphs)
    > What she wants (ordered list)
    > How it should be delivered (ordered list)
    > Strong negatives (bulleted list)
    
    
Class Persona:
    Job: Tech Coordinator
    Age: 22
    Sex: M
    Birth: Edmonds
    Edu: Art & Info
    Hobbies: Video-games; Snowboard; Barbies
    Belief: Got a treat; neutral
    Style: Wired; Finding Nemo (plot); Original.com simple, eye candy
    Need: little
    Influence: A lot of influence; positive disposition
    And some other stuff... we got tired of turning our heads around...
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