1. Delighting the Real User: Personas in Action Presented at Computers In Libraries in Washington, D.C. March 18, 2005 Stephen Abram VP Innovation, SIRSI Mary Lee Kennedy Principal, The Kennedy Group

2. As information providers, we are expected to ensure information seekers: –Find quality information –Determine its relevance –Trust and believe in its reliability and credibility –Find out who else has knowledge –Find the same information, knowledge and people from any starting point –Learn about new relevant resources Why it Matters © The Kennedy Group1

3. Challenges/Opportunities The underpinning of technology in entertainment, learning, information and knowledge exchanges The pervasiveness of information and “know- how” and how people engage with it Learning style preferences Generational and socioeconomic differences © The Kennedy Group2

4. Topics We’ll Cover Information use trends Learning styles Past experience Personas Future possibilities... © The Kennedy Group3

5. Trends/ The Past /Personas/The Future The Internet in 2004 –on a typical day 70 million American adults logged onto the Internet –over 95% of U.S. public libraries had Internet access Lee Rainie and John Horrigan. A decade of adoption: How the internet has woven itself into American life. Pew Internet and American Life Project, Jan. 25, 2005 Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Global Library Program Fact Sheet http://www.gatesfoundation.org/Libraries/RelatedInfo/LibraryFactsheet-040224.htm © The Kennedy Group4

6. Trends/ The Past/Personas/The Future Average time spent processing information in each of the information spaces Davenport, Tom. IWPC Personal Information and Knowledge Management Report. 2003. http://iwpc.sharepoint.bcentral.com/iwforum/Document%20Library/1/IWPC%20-%20PIKM%20Report%20v.mht Information Access at the Office © The Kennedy Group5

7. New contexts for information and information delivery –Duke and iPods for all students –SAT test questions on cell phones –Blogs and RSS feeds –Peer-to-peer market research and benchmarking –Google Scholar –Academic-run research communities –Digitized collections Trends/ The Past/Personas/The Future © The Kennedy Group6

8. Information Engagement Levels Read/View Argue/Defend Present/Teach Stimulate/Live Act on/ Discuss Content Source Situation Dr. Thomas Davenport Trends/ The Past/Personas/The Future

9. Millennials: A new generation Facts about Millennials Computers are a part of life The Internet is better than the TV Reality is not real (i.e. the definitive authority) Doing is more important than knowing Learning occurs through trial and error rather than rules Multitasking is a way of life Keyboarding is preferred over handwriting Staying connected is essential Zero tolerance for delays Diana Oblinger, “Boomers, Gene-Xers and Millennial’s. Understanding the new students. Educause, July/August 2003, pgs. 37-45. © The Kennedy Group7

11. Trends/ The Past/Personas/The Future © The Kennedy Group8

12. Trends/ The Past/ Personas/The Future There are mixed, even unpredictable, experiences with information: –Searching –The Reference Desk (physical and virtual) –eBooks, bookstores, physical collections, the Web –eLearning, classrooms, teachers –Video games, simulations, case studies –Chat rooms, team sites, communities –Etc..... © The Kennedy Group9

13. Organizations and individuals have varying degrees of tolerance for change and risk: –Redesigning workflow –Developing skills and competencies –Changing team compositions, roles and responsibilities –Adding and subtracting products and services –Redefining directions Trends/ The Past/ Personas/The Future © The Kennedy Group10

14. Trends/The Past/Personas/The Future But.... –Information providers know information is sought out, assessed and used in different ways, That.... –the choices are vast, the quality is highly variable, And –money doesn’t grow on trees. © The Kennedy Group11

15. Trends/The Past/Personas/The Future © The Kennedy Group12

16. Trends/The Past/ Personas/ The Future © The Kennedy Group13

17. Trends/The Past/ Personas/ The Future There is no Ruth.... Personas are hypothetical representations of a natural grouping of users that drive decision-making for (development) projects. –They are defined by goals. –They focus on what is valuable to the user and subsequently on how he or she behaves. © The Kennedy Group14

18. Goals: Help team build the base infrastructure for.NET products. Construct the base set of services that ship with the product and compose the core of a distributed framework for hosting distributed services. Add queuing semantics and associated locking, classification and routing of messages, subscriptions, efficient filtering, fan-out, etc., to the server. Integrate new distributed communication semantics to the existing SQL Server programming model. Demonstrate ability to communicate and work well with other teams. Usage Scenario : Henry has been around long enough to build a solid network of resources to call when he has specific questions about products or programs. He often learns about new technologies or processes through casual conversation with his friends and coworkers in the hallway. He uses Yahoo! for general information gathering because he likes the simplicity of the site design and the breadth of information available. The Portal is not his start page—he usually just types in the URL directly. He rarely reads the content on the first page because he doesn't want to know what's going on with general companywide PR information. He's somewhat cynical about "companywide" internal releases and dislikes company politics. However, on a personal level, he does want to know about the schedules that the applications are on so he can plan. He's frustrated that there's no place you can go to find product information all in one spot. Info-Seeking Behavior : When Henry needs specific information, he generally e-mails or phones a friend. He is a member of about 15 different DLs that used to be manageable, but now he finds it increasingly difficult to keep up. He typically uses the Portal to search for internal information across the companywide intranet or to find other internal sites. He comes to the portal about four-five times a week by typing in the URL and stays for less than 15 minutes at a time. He rarely, if ever, goes to there to find general information about the company or the industry as a whole. He uses internal databases to find internal information on products or code. If he's frustrated by something, he'll go there and find solutions rather than go outside to support or to a dot-com. "You used to have to drill down pretty deep to find personalized information, but now it's easier." He tends to bookmark pages in the portal because he hates having to go 5 levels down. He'll use that bookmark until it breaks, then he has to research it again. He would like to have favorites on the portal. Henry 41 Years Old, Software Design Engineer U.S. 12 Years at the company. Single, MS Comput.Sci ©The Kennedy Group15 Trends/The Past/ Personas/ The Future

19. http://advertising.msn.com/home/MSNPersonas.asp ©The Kennedy Group16 Trends/The Past/ Personas/ The Future

20. Flight Attendant Interface Cooper's flight attendant interface lets airline staff focus on customer service, not frustrating technology. P@ssport Interface To meet the goals of a wide range of passengers, Cooper redesigned P@ssport with a simple, physical interface that lets users quickly view and make selections. ©The Kennedy Group17 Trends/ The Past/ Personas /The Future

21. Information Seeking/Use Behavior Information and Knowledge Information Channel © The Kennedy Group18

22. Personas are understood through discovery by: –Gathering data to identify possible “anchors” –Observing behavior –Pattern emergence in narrative Trends/The Past/ Personas/ The Future © The Kennedy Group19

23. Do you know what the next information products and services need to be for your clients......in this quickly changing, complex, highly diverse world? Trends/ The Past/Personas/ The Future © The Kennedy Group22

24. Public Library Pilot Project –Libraries in rural, urban and suburban Northeastern U.S. –April-May 2005 –Leveraging proven techniques for understanding complex markets (Cynefin Centre) Possible follow up to cover the broader U.S.A. and Canadian library users Trends/ The Past/Personas/ The Future © The Kennedy Group23

25. Starting with understanding the users in terms of their: –needs, preferences, and desires –goals and aspirations –expectations and assumptions –values and their beliefs –tolerance for risk and change Trends/ The Past/Personas/ The Future © The Kennedy Group24

26. In summary, by seeing the world through the lens of the customer, we create an: –Opportunity to increase customer satisfaction and return visits –Opportunity for everyone in the organization to work to achieve the same goals, efficiently, and an –Opportunity to have a clear, and achievable direction. ©The Kennedy Group25 Trends/The Past/Personas/ The Future

27. Thank You Mary Lee Kennedy http://www.maryleekennedy.com marylee@maryleekennedy.com Stephen Abram http://www.sirsi.com Stephen.abram@sirsi.com © The Kennedy Group26