SIMS 213: User Interface Design

1
SIMS 213 User Interface Design Development

• Marti Hearst and
• Tues, Jan 30, 2007

2
Today

• Personas

3
Observation (from Cooper)

• Being a victim of a problem does not necessarily
  bestow the power to see the solution
• An individual is not always representative
• Company president example

4
Personas (from Cooper)

• Hypothetical Archetypes
• Archetype (American Heritage)
• An original model or type after which other
  similar things are patterned a prototype
• An ideal example of a type quintessence
• A precise description of a user and what they
  want to accomplish
• Imaginary, but precise
• Specific, but stereotyped
• Real people have non-representative quirks

5
The Essence of Personas

• Describe a person in terms of their
• Goals in life (especially relating to this
  project)
• Capabilities, inclinations, and background
• People have a visceral ability to generalize
  about real and fictional people
• We can have detailed discussions about what Harry
  Potter, Scarlett OHara, or Colin Powell will
  think or do.
• They wont be 100 accurate, but it feels natural
  to think about people this way

6
Reasons for Personas

• A compromise design pleases no-one
• The broader you aim, the more likely you miss the
  bulls-eye
• 50 of the people 50 happy doesnt work
• Car example soccer mom, carpenter, dot-com exec
• Every time you extend functionality to include
  another constituency, you put another speed bump
  of features and controls across every other
  users road.
• A targeted design can achieve
• 10 people 100 ecstatic
• Examples
• Ram pickup truck
• Sony aibo
• There is no such thing as an average user

7
Reasons for Personas

• Examples of results of targeted design
• Dodge Ram pickup
• Roller suitcases
• Sony Aibo
• Isnt useful for anything
• Not fuzzy and warm
• Too delicate to let children use it, but
• Passionate fan clubs
• Brisk sales despite steep price and prices now
  coming down

8
Reasons for Personas

• Avoid the elastic user
• If the description is not specific, it can easily
  wiggle to suit the design needs of the moment
• Piston analogy
• Helps prevent designer / programmer from
  imagining they are the user

Image from www.howstuffworks.com
9
Reasons for Personas

• Puts an end to feature debates
• Makes hypothetical arguments less hypothetical
• Q What if the user wants to print this out?
• A1 The user wont want to print often.
• A2 Emilee wont want to print often.
• User Persona, not Buyer Persona
• This is one way HCI differs from marketing
• Eventually it pays off in more sales

10
Case Study using Personas

• Sony TransComs P_at_ssport
• Initial design Conventional solution
• Deep hierarchy of screens
• Uninformed consent
• Reflected the internal design of the software
• This design decision forced them to throw out the
  natural choice of a touchscreen
• 3D graphics, artistic icons, map-and-globe
  metaphor
• But no substance
• Painting the corpse

11
Case Study using Personas

• Procedure
• Interviews inside Sony
• What are their goals?
• What is the project history?
• Interviews in the field
• Airline personnel, particularly flight attendants
• Every new story lead to a new persona
• 30 personas at one point
• Eventually, see commonalities, collapse them down
• 4 passengers, six airline employees
• Passengers are the hard part

12
Case Study using Personas

• Passenger Personas
• Chuck Burgermeister
• Ethan Scott
• Marie Dubois
• Clevis McCloud
• Goal satisfy all of them, make no one unhappy,
  but dont have to make any of them exceptionally
  happy
• (contradiction of earlier point captive
  audience)
• Interesting development one persona became a
  common denominator and a touchstone

13
Case Study using Personas

• Interesting design decisions
• No navigation
• Only one screen
• This isnt really accurate they had different
  screens for different kinds of entertainment
• This means not very many movies to choose from
  and is not what a computer scientist would
  design for
• Physical knob like a radio dial
• Few clicks means touchscreen is ok
• Content provided much of the value
• Movie vendors surprised the designers by being
  enthused about having to supply content
• Consequence of the fact that every movie is
  carefully marketed already
• Other interfaces needed for airline personnel

14
IS 213 Example UC Berkeley Calendar Network

• Problem Statement
• Although UC Berkeley boasts an incredibly rich
  array of public events taking place on any given
  day from a Management of Technology lecture at
  the Haas School of Business to a film series at
  the Pacific Film Archive, from a physics
  colloquium to a dance performance at Cal
  Performances because events can currently be
  found in over 80 web-based calendars, it can be
  difficult for people interested in these events
  to find out about them.
• Because the purpose of a calendar is to publicize
  events, many of these calendars would like to
  share their events with each other.
• Currently there is no automated way to do this.
• Often this is done by manually entering the event
  data into several different web forms
• Or, even more inefficiently, by emailing the
  event data
• IS213 Website http//www.sims.berkeley.edu/academ
  ics/courses/is213/s04/projects/EventCalendar/

15
Persona 1 Megan Richardson

• Persona 1 - Megan Richardson
• Technology level Med-low
• Interest in sharing events Medium
• Unique situation Currently has no calendar,
  would like to send events to other calendars and
  receive events from other calendars
• Megan Richardson is the 22-year-old UC student
  and member of CalPirg, the California branch of a
  student organization whose mission is to deliver
  persistent, result-oriented public interest
  activism that encourages a fair, sustainable
  economy, and fosters responsive, democratic
  government. She is from Boston and has been
  maintaining the CalPirg website in her spare
  time. Megan created her first website as a
  high-school senior using Dreamweaver. She
  understands basic HTML, but is not very familiar
  with data-driven websites or cascading style
  sheets. As she has not yet worked in the business
  world, she has also never used a personal
  calendaring system such as Outlook.
• CalPirg sponsors 8-10 campus events each
  semester, such as rallies against hunger and
  homelessness or for clean and affordable power.
  The organization attempts to publicize these
  events to its members and the general public by
  posting them on their website and sending emails
  out to their mailing list in order to increase
  attendance and catch the attention of
  legislators. However, because Megan is very busy
  with schoolwork and activism during her senior
  year and not many of the other CalPirg members
  have website design expertise, they have not had
  time to redesign their website in order to
  present their events in a coherent, easy to use,
  calendar-oriented format. Megan would love to
  have a tool that would automate the creation of a
  functional, well-designed calendar for the
  CalPirg website. CalPirg might also be interested
  in publicizing other campus and community events
  that support their mission in their calendar, as
  well as publicize their events in other calendars
  to increase attendance at their events. Megan
  would not want to spend more than an hour setting
  such a system up, and could spend only about a
  half hour per week maintaining information on
  CalPirg events. CalPirg has about 4-5 major
  events a semester, and 2-3 events that occur on a
  weekly basis. If a nicely formatted calendar
  could even increase attendance at their events by
  10, it would be well worth her time.
• Megans Goals
• Create a simple calendar or list of events as
  well as send out emails on events that her
  organization sponsors on their website in order
  to encourage the participation of members and the
  public in these events without having to hire a
  programmer
• To ensure that their website supports the
  organizations mission, which is to deliver
  persistent, result-oriented public interest
  activism that encourages a fair, sustainable
  economy, and fosters responsive, democratic
  government
• To spend most of her time on schoolwork and
  activism, and less time on the technical details
  of managing a website

16
Persona 2 Harold Jackson

• Persona 2 - Harold Jackson
• Technology level Med-high
• Interest in sharing events High
• Unique situation Campus Event Aggregator, they
  dont own any events
• Harold Jackson is a 40-year-old Program Manager
  in the Public Relations office of the UC. He is a
  Los Angeles native who enjoys walking his dog and
  playing tennis with his wife, who is a
  programmer. He is responsible for overseeing the
  maintenance of the UC website and Calendar of
  Events. It is essential that the website project
  a professional image, as it is an important means
  of advertising the university to the general
  public, alumni and potential donors. Harolds
  background is primarily in public relations, but
  he has also acquired technical skills along the
  way, and is the primary maintainer of the UC
  website. Although he is familiar with the concept
  of building a data-driven website, the back-end
  of the university website was built by an outside
  contractor, and most of the staff in Harolds
  department are not as technically savvy as he is.
  Harold and most of his group are familiar with
  calendaring systems such as Outlook or ICal, and
  use the CalAgenda calendaring system to schedule
  meetings.
• Harolds ultimate goal in relation to the campus
  calendar is to publicize as many events occurring
  on the UC campus as possible, and to highlight
  especially important events on the website.
  Currently events are submitted to the university
  calendar via a web form, and not many departments
  currently enter their events in this fashion. As
  a result, Harolds staff has to spend time
  contacting various departments to find
  interesting events to post to their calendar.
  Harold thinks that if he could somehow find a way
  make it easier for campus departments and
  organizations to send him events, he could
  greatly increase the number of events he would
  receive and be able to publicize. In evaluating a
  new system, however, he would want to ensure that
  it is at a minimum an improvement over the
  current system in terms of functionality, and
  offers a design that integrates with the overall
  UC website.
• Harold's Goals
• Create a web-based calendar that will be the
  ultimate aggregator of all events at his
  university, which will be used by the public as
  well as people at the university
• Market the university to potential contributors
  and the general public by highlighting the
  diverse and exciting events that occur there
• Ensure that the calendar looks professional and
  eye-catching, and integrates with the overall
  look and feel of the university website
• Make the process for entering and approving
  events as easy as possible so that even
  low-tech users in his department can do this
• Encourage other calendar owners to send him
  events

17
Persona 3 Sally McNeil

• Persona 3 - Sally McNeil
• Technology level High
• Interest in sharing events High
• Unique situation Model must handle parent-child
  event relationships allow the use of cascading
  style sheets
• Sally McNeil is the 35-year-old webmaster for the
  universitys science museum. She is from
  Michigan, loves to travel, and often takes exotic
  vacations with her husband and two children
  during school breaks. Her manager has tasked her
  with revamping the organizations website in
  order to draw more visitors to the museum. As
  families and schools usually only visit the
  museum once a year or so, they would like to
  encourage new people who may be traveling from
  farther distances to visit. She feels that giving
  visitors to her website information on related
  events and activities occurring on campus might
  be a good way to bolster attendance. Sally has
  extensive web programming experience, and her
  website is currently dynamically generated. She
  works with a java programmer on the website, and
  both of them are familiar with XML. She and her
  programmer have thought a lot about the best way
  to format a calendar-oriented website, and have
  even prototyped their best ideas. She wants to
  find an easy way to include events from other
  departments, without having to cut and paste them
  into her calendar. She also would like to be able
  to maintain the appearance of her website using
  cascading style sheets.
• Sally's Goals
• Use the website to increase attendance at the
  museum
• Create an eye-catching, dynamically-generated
  calendar that will allow parents and teachers to
  easily plan trips to their museum
• Include events occurring at the university that
  may be of interest to their patrons, so families
  and groups traveling great distances to reach the
  museum can make a day of it and attend other
  events during their time in town
• Clearly list events that have a parent-child
  relationship on the website so that it is easy
  for visitors to find what they are looking for
  (e.g. Forces that Shape the Bay event during
  which many different daily presentations occur)
• Use cascading style sheets to maintain website
  look and feel

18
Persona 4 Nina Sanchez

• Persona 4 - Nina Sanchez
• Technology level Low
• Interest in sharing events Low
• Unique situation Political constraints on event
  listings need to send email when new events are
  added
• Nina Sanchez is a 27-year-old Program Coordinator
  of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies. She is
  single and has a very active social life. She
  lives in the Mission in San Francisco where she
  often attends art openings, musical events, and
  goes dancing whenever she gets the chance. She
  manages the office of her small department,
  including scheduling seminars and classes,
  fundraising, and maintaining their website. As
  their department often deals with political
  figures that may hold strongly opposing
  viewpoints, the members of her department must
  always be careful to avoid potential clashes
  between their visitors. This includes ensuring
  that people who would not want to be associated
  with each other are not featured prominently on
  their website at the same time.
• Nina works with the Program Director to recruit
  potential speakers and secure funding, and uses
  the website to advertise their many events. They
  would not want to include events other than their
  own, as they see the website as a marketing tool
  for their organization only. Making sure the
  website presents a professional image is an
  important consideration for Ninas team. She
  would also like to keep events posted even after
  they have passed, as new visitors to their site
  are often people searching for terms used in
  their descriptions of past events. Nina has no
  experience with programming, and her webmaster
  maintains the Centers website. The calendar is
  very basic, consisting only of a list of events.
• Nina would be interested in a new calendaring
  system if it would be easy for their members and
  visitors to use and would enhance their
  reputation by presenting an even more
  professional image. She would also like to
  maintain the current system of sending out an
  email to their mailing list whenever a new event
  is added, and ensure that she is able to modify
  events on their website at a moments notice, as
  locations are sometimes changed right before
  their events. Nina would love to be able to
  include links for their users to create maps to
  their events, as they often hold events
  off-campus. She favors the current list format of
  their calendar, and does not currently use a
  personal calendaring system, although she has
  used a PDA in the past.
• Nina's Goals
• Create a web-based calendar which will showcase
  only the events that occur in her department
• Present a professional image that will encourage
  potential speakers and contributors to work with
  their organization
• Manage the sometimes heated political climate
  that surrounds their speakers, including making
  sure two speakers who have opposing political
  views are not featured together on their website
• Drive traffic to their website by keeping past
  events listed there
• Send email to mailing list when a new event is
  added
• Modify events on a moments notice
• Allow users to easily create maps to their events
  

19
Task analysis may eliminate personas
20
Personas in Posters/Placemats

• Creates a visual representation of the users
• present a snapshot of the most important
  characteristics of each user
• Bring the person to life for the design
  team/developers

21
Possible Poster Skeleton
Name/Title
User Type
quote
Photo/ captions
Photo/ captions
quote
Description of users business/ job/work
environment
Core Competencies
User goals
Bottlenecks
Tools Used
Tasks
Needs

• Adapted from Usability in Practice 3-Day
  Intensive Camp, Nielsen Norman Group, 2005

22
Lets practice creating personas