1. Imran Hussain University of Management and Technology (UMT)
Virtual University Human-Computer Interaction
Lecture 22 User Modeling
Imran Hussain
University of Management and Technology (UMT) 1

2. In the Last Lecture Qualitative Research Techniques
Conducting ethnographic field studies

3. In Today’s Lecture …
Personas
Goals

4. Modeling

5. Why Model? Used extensively in design, development and sciences
Represent complex structures and relationships
Have to make sense of unstructured, raw data
Good models
Emphasize features of structures or relationships they represent
De-emphasize less significant details
Create models based on patterns in data
E.g., physicists on the atom

6. Research Modeling Qualitative Data Usage Patterns Goals Personas
Use ethnographic research techniques to obtain qualitative data:
user observation
contextual interviews
Qualitative Data
Usage Patterns
Goals
Personas
Sets of observed behaviors that categorize modes of use
Specific and general desired outcomes of using the product

7. Moving from Research to Modeling
Need to synthesize patterns
This leads to the systematic construction of patterns in interaction
Matching
Behaviors
Mental models
Goals of users
Personas provide this formalization

8. Personas

9. Personas A precise descriptive model of the user
What he wishes to accomplish? and why?
A.k.a. user models
Personas based on motivations and behaviors of real people
Personas based on behavioral data gathered from actual users through ethnographic interviews
When to create
Discovered during Research phase
Formalized during Modeling phase

10. Strengths of Personas
How do you successfully accommodate a variety of users?
Do not design for everyone!
Different needs (e.g., a car for everyone’s needs)
Person A (Minivan)
Person B (Pickup)
Person C (Sports Car)
Design for specific types of individuals with specific needs
These users should represent a larger set of users

11. Strengths of Personas

12. Strengths of Personas Personas are a tool for Understanding user needs
Differentiating between types of users
Prioritizing users

14. Strengths of Personas
Determine what a product should do and how it should behave
Communicate with stakeholders, developers and designers
Common language for discussing design decisions
Build consensus and commitment to design
Common understanding through narrative structures
Measure the design’s effectiveness
Can be tested on personas
Contribute to other product-related efforts
Sales, marketing planning, business strategies

15. Personas and User-Centered Design
Personas resolve 3 user-centered issues:
The elastic user
Self-referential design
Design edge cases

16. The Elastic User The term user causes imprecision
During design decisions user becomes ‘elastic’
Accommodating, computer-literate
Unsophisticated first-time user
Persons not elastic and represent real user needs

17. Self-referential Design
Developers’ mental model, skills, goals, motivations projected onto product design
Manifested by a ‘cool’ product
Not understood by users

18. Design Edge Cases What could possibly happen, but probably never will
Personas provide reality check

19. Personas Based on Research
Personas synthesized from data
Primary source of data
Ethnographic interviews, contextual inquiry
Supplemental sources of data
Interviews with users outside their use context
Information about users supplied by stakeholders and SMEs
Market research data (focus groups, surveys)
Market segmentation models
Data from literature reviews
Every detail in personas should be traceable
From user quotes, observed behaviors

20. Personas Represented as Individuals
Personas are user models represented as specific, individual humans
Represented as specific individuals
Not actual people, but synthesized
Engage empathy of development team towards human target of design
Allow designers and developers to role play in scenarios

21. Personas Represent Classes of Users in Context
Personas identify usage patterns
Usage patterns are behavior patterns regarding the use of a particular product
Patterns along with work/life-related roles define personas as user archetypes (archetype: an original model or pattern of which all things of the same type are representations or copies)
Personas a.k.a. composite user archetypes
Composites assembled by clustering related usage patterns across individuals
Personas and reuse
Personas context-specific
Cannot be reused across products
Archetypes vs. stereotypes
Stereotypes antithesis of personas
Reflect biases of designer biases

22. Personas Explore Ranges of Behavior
Personas do not establish an average user
Identifies different kinds of behavior in form of ranges
Designers must collect a cast (collection) of personas associated with a product

23. Personas have Motivations
Humans have emotions
Personas capture motivations in the form of goals
Identify usage patterns
Identify why behaviors exist

24. Personas vs. User Roles A.k.a. role models
User roles and user profiles
both describe relationship of users to products
User roles are
an abstraction
A defined relationship between class of users and their problems

25. Problems with User Roles
More difficult to identify relationships in the abstract
Focus on tasks, neglect goals as organizing principle
Cannot be used as a coherent tool for communication and development

26. Personas vs. User Profiles
Usually a ‘brief biographical sketch’
Name
Demographic data
Fictional paragraph
Personas derived from ethnographic data

27. Personas vs. Market Segments
Based on demographics and distribution channels
Personas
User behavior and goals

28. User Personas vs. Non-user Personas
Product definition error is to target people who review, purchase or administer the product
‘IT Managers’ better served if real end user served
Cater for non-user personas where necessary
Enterprise systems

29. Goals

30. Goals and Personas Personas contain sets of behaviors
Goals drive behaviors
Personas without goals
Communication tool [useful]
Design tool [useless]
Goals should determine functions of product
Function and Behavior of Product must address Goals via Tasks

31. Goals Motivate Usage Patterns
Goals motivate people to behave in a certain way
Goals provide answer to
Why personas use a product?
How personas desire to use a product?
Goals serve as shorthand (in designer’s mind) for complex behaviors

32. Goals Must Be Inferred from Qualitative Data
Can’t ask a person what his goals are directly
He can’t articulate them
He won’t be accurate
He won’t be honest
Goals constructed from:
Observed behaviors
Answers to questions
Non-verbal cues
Clues from environment
Goals expressed succinctly
Each goal expressed as a single sentence

33. Types of Goals …
User Goals
Non-User Goals

34. User Goals …
Life goals
Experience Goals
End Goals

35. Life Goals Reflect personal aspirations of user
Go beyond the context of product being designed
Examples
Be the best at what I do
Get onto the fast track and win that big promotion
Learn all there is to know about this field
Be a paragon of ethics, modesty and trust
Not directly related to design of interface
Addressing life goals creates fanatically loyal users

36. Experience Goals Product-related (general)
How someone wants to feel when using a product
People desire to be treated with dignity and respect and supported
Examples
Don’t feel stupid
Don’t make mistakes
Feel competent and confident
Have fun

37. End Goals Product-related (specific)
Expectation’s of the tangible outcomes of using a product
Examples
Find the best price
Finalize the press release
Process the customer’s order
Create a numerical model of the business

38. Combining End Goals and Experience Goals
End goals have more appeal to
Business people
Programmers
Most products satisfy end goals and not the experience goals
Satisfying only end goals  users not happy
Satisfying only experience goals  product becomes a toy

39. Non-User Goals Must be considered, but not at expense of user goals
Types …
Customer Goals
Corporate Goals
Technical Goals

40. Customer Goals Consumer products Enterprise products
Concerned about happiness and safety (parents, relatives, friends)
Enterprise products
Concerned about security, ease of maintenance, ease of customization (IT managers)

41. Corporate Goals Businesses and organizations have goals for product
Enable designers to remain focused
Examples
Increase profit
Increase market share
Defeat the competition
Use resources more efficiently
Offer more products or services

42. Technical Goals Programmer’s goals Ease task of software creation
Often take precedence over user’s goals
Examples
Save memory
Run in a browser
Safeguard data integrity
Increase program execution efficiency
Use “cool” technology or features
Maintain consistency across platforms
Users do not care about technical goals (e.g., type of databases used)

43. Successful Products Meet User Goals First
Good products
Serve a purpose in a context for people
Key tool in designing is personas
Personas are specific people working towards specific purposes (goals)
Goals of real people using product are always more important than:
A corporation
IT manager
Users will try to meet business goals
But not at expense of their dignity

44. Meeting user goals Successful products meet user goals
Don’t make me (user) think
i.e. don’t make em’ feel stupid

45. A user’s most important goal is always to retain his human dignity (Don’t make the user feel stupid) Today’s digital products degrade human beings

46. Constructing Personas

47. Constructing Personas
Personas derived from patterns observed during interviews and observations
Well-developed personas include information about
Goals
Attitudes
Work or activity flow
Typical workday
Use environment
Skills and skill levels
Current solutions and frustrations
Relevant relationships with others

48. Process for Constructing Personas …
Revisit the persona hypothesis.
Map interview subjects to behavioral variables.
Identify significant behavior patterns.
Synthesize characteristics and relevant goals.
Check for completeness.
Develop narratives.
Designate persona types.

49. Revisit the persona hypothesis
Compare patterns in data with assumptions in persona hypothesis
List behavioral variables
Behavioral variables in enterprise applications related to job roles
15 to 30 behavioral variables per role
Modify assumptions if at variance with data

50. Map interview subjects to behavioral variables
Map each interviewee against each applicable variable range
Place interviewee on a range according to a scale
Clusters indicate behavior patterns
Behavioral range a.k.a. behavioral axis

51. Map interview subjects to behavioral variables

52. Identify significant behavior patterns
Note clusters of subjects across multiple ranges
Set of interviewees that cluster in 6-8 variables possibly represent a persona based on pattern
May have 2-3 such patterns

53. Synthesize relevant characteristics and relevant goals
Synthesize details from data
List characteristics of behavior in brief bullet points
Add little description of personalities
Only first and last names of persona should be fictional
Add some demographic info
E.g., age, location, income
From this point on, refer to persona by assigned name
List goals by inference from behavior data

54. Check for completeness
Check persona characteristics and goals for any gaps
Eliminate redundancies
E.g., 2 personas only varying in location
Each persona must vary from another in at least one behavior

55. Constructing Personas
Well-developed personas include information about
Goals
Attitudes
Work or activity flow
Typical workday
Use environment
Skills and skill levels
Current solutions and frustrations
Relevant relationships with others

56. Develop narratives
Introduce third person narrative to convey persona’s attitudes, needs and problems
Persona narrative < 1-2 pages
Narrative
Introduces persona in terms of job or lifestyle
Sketches a day in his life, including interests and concerns related to product
Choose photographs of persona

57. Designate persona types
Each interface designed for single, primary persona
Prioritize personas

60. Persona types Primary Secondary Supplemental Customer Served Negative
Primary target for design of interface
Secondary
Secondary personas per interface: 0 to 2
Supplemental
Customer
Served
Negative

61. Process for Constructing Personas
Revisit the persona hypothesis.
Map interview subjects to behavioral variables.
Identify significant behavior patterns.
Synthesize characteristics and relevant goals.
Check for completeness.
Develop narratives.
Designate persona types.