they are not who you think they are

They Are Not Who You Think They Are Creating A Realistic Mobile Persona !Andrew Heaton | Revinity | True North UX

Amazing Peeps Make M3 Happen

Hi, I’m AndrewI’m a Designer

Big Design, Small Screen

Conceptual Design for Mobile Devices

Andrew Heaton

Purposely Irregular

Zen, Punk Rock and Ruthlessness in Experience Design

Andrew Heaton

(and a writer).

Tweet and Take Photos @tigerstripe | #M3Conf

Side Note If you are the person who plans to ask why I call them

personas and not personae, I dislike you already.

Some Quick Rules about UX

Rule Number One: There's no fucking rules, dude.

Photo by unknown, but it’s not by me.

Rule Number Two:  Draw everything 3 times before you go near a computer &  Describe it out loud at least twice. !

Photo by Glen E. Friedman

The One Law of Mobile Design: You Must Design Something Remarkable.

Eno, Fripp, Bowie. Source Unknown.

We Live in a Miraculous Age. When you design a shitty app you embarrass us all because you are denying the wonder of our times.

Let’s talk about Personas.

What are they good for?

Let's ask the Spool. !

"Personas are model users that the team creates to help understand the goals, motivations, and behaviors of the

people who will use the interface."

Personas are extraordinarily useful tools But are truly only as effective as the data on hand

or the imagination of the person creating them.

We're using the same personas for TV spots as we are for websites as we are for mobile apps

!

This should change

These personas have little connection to reality other than they likely use a stock photo you've seen before.

Text

Defensive

Surgical Immersive

Offensive

Possibilitiesinitially over time

What Matters Most The Tipping Point

Possibilitiesinitially over time

What Matters Most The Tipping Point

MODE DESCRIPTION

Family-oriented; Loves life; Young at heart

Users place emphasis on the family and vehicles that match their unique life events. They make joint decisions with their espouses and share the research process.

The Maximizer side tends to be immersive in their research because they consider how their family will use the vehicle in addition to themselves.

The Satisfier side does much of the work in figuring out the vehicle specifics: there is a practical and emotional connection to decide whether or not the car is the right fit.

They both dread the dealer experience.

wagon

sedan

minivan

SUV

Escape

under 20K

5 seats

medium cargofuel economy

family

kidsunder 25K

CR-VVUE

Civic

Camry

green

travel

carpool

Taurus

EscapeHybrid

CUV

Even balance of emotionaldrivers and rationalconsiderations

PriceVehicle Experience+ FeaturesCustomer SupportExperienceDealer Experience

Focus on rationalconsiderations with emotional drivers as background

Top two things in myshopping list in the context of all the secondary things I’ve looked at

I start with a set of models and needs in mind, am open to a broad set of relevant possibilities, and need to take a lot into consideration to make a purchase decision.

I start with a set of specific needs, get progressively open to a set of relevant possibilities as I get immersed into the information, but at the end only a couple things will make a difference.

Make Lemonade MAXIMIZER Make Lemonade SATISFIER

SUV

between 25 and 45K

6-7 seats

Explorer Expedition

performance*

*

*entertainment

travel

* *

Who They Are Expectations and Goals

Future Considerations

LoyalistThe Loyalist car buyers aren’t defined by having an emotional attachment to

their vehicle’s name. They’re looking for an American vehicle that is fun to drive,

which also provides a feel of practicality. The loyalist is a city dweller who is

likely to shop the entire Chrysler family before looking elsewhere for his/her

next car.

Loyalty here may stem from a relationship with a particular dealer. While this

buyer may look for a vehicle on the Internet, he/she is more likely to visit a

dealer online. The loyalist does not seem to be particularly emotionally

attached to his/her vehicle, but describes the dealer experience as delightful.

The site then needs to feel closer to home.

Average Age : 47Gender : 63%Marital Status : 69%

Education: 24% High School Graduate23% Some College19% College Graduate

Occupations: 18% Professional Specialty9% Skilled Trade8% Administrative / Clerical

Ethnicity: 93% White/Caucasian4% Hispanic1% Asian American

Top Purchased Vehicles: 18% Dakota 17% Ram Pick-Up17% Durango13% Grand Caravan12% Caravan

In New Vehicle Feel: • Comfortable : 63%• Dependable : 63%• Ease : 54%

Vehicle: • Clearly Meets Needs : 51% • Is Fun : 57%• Is Smart Choice : 56%

Seriously Consider Other Makes? 43%

Brands Most Seriously Considered14% Ford 14% Chevy4% Jeep

• Continued Dodge Branding• Community Efforts• Free Branded Offerings• Personal Service/Catering• Discounts

• Dodge-Specific Owner's Site• Regional Or Personal Information• Presentation Of Information Based On User• Better Display Of Loyalty Incentives• Enhanced Dealer Sites For Regional Marketing• Mopar Accessorizer• First Peek Information• Web-Based EMail• Lease-End Options/Incentives/Recommendations• Free Upgrade With Repeat Purchase

Alan StanwyckAlan Stanwyck only drives American cars like Dodge.

He wants a fun, practical car and when he arrives at

the Dodge site he is only sure of one thing-he wants

a Dodge to fit that description. He's not sure what

Dodge best fits him and would like some direction

as to what he should choose.

His loyalty to Dodge also directly relates to a positive

experience he's had with his dealership. This

experience continually brings Stanwyck back to

Dodge when his lease expires so that he can get

whatever fits his needs at the time. He'd like to enter

the dealership armed with some knowledge of the

Dodge lineup but looks to his salesman to further

help him through the decision-making process.

Tracy is a married mother of two teens. She works full-time, and has a lot of interests both inside and outside of the home. Everyone in her family has a busy, full plate, and everyone pitches in to keep things in the home running smoothly. Even though she has a lot going on, Tracy tries to get the most out of everything she does for her family - and for herself. She tends to cook dinner for the family several nights a week and plans most things out in advance. While she will often cook and serve family favorites, she is always on the lookout for new recipes that have interesting descriptions or ingredient profiles. Unlike some other moms she knows, all meals are not fully planned and organized for the whole week in advance, Tracy doesn’t play by their rules!

Transferred ego is a horrible thing.

Personas were intended to be people we could have empathy for and relate to both for ourselves and to

describe to our clients. !

They were the soundboard against which our ideas would be validated.

We spend time trying to believe that Lisa, the active mom would really want our super app that organizes

her dog walking schedule and offers pet food discounts based on her area.

Zen plumbers and family men without drinking problems and gracious moms who help organize neighborhood events and

tech savvy grandpa who love connecting with Korea vets.

Where's the fat kid with the cracked screen? !

Where’s the mother of three who uses her smartphone as a video player for the noisiest kid in the backseat?

!

Where’s the 16-year old who has more learned technology behavior than you'll accumulate in the next 10 years?

!

Where’s the grandpa who calls on the phone to tell you he just sent you an email?

I've yet to see a realistic persona that reflects the averages or even lower end of an expected user group. 

We don't like thinking about ugly people using our apps

Are These Your Users?

What About Him? You Should Be So Lucky.

We are assholes about personas.

The worst part about ego-based personas? They deny our ability to say what we believe,

unless it's by proxy.

"Well, that's your opinion."

Being a designer is more than pushing pixels in Photoshop. Being a designer is seeing a window of the future

and knowing how to get there. Many times this goes against what is current.

And personas are all about yesterday.

So personas are useless?

We are Just Aiming for the Wrong Target

Let's talk about essential understanding for mobile personas

The 5W Method If you've ever taken a journalism class or had to

write anything expositional, you know these.

Who Are Your Expected Users? This is the biggest question. Be smart about who they are and aren’t.

What Are Their Goals? What does that app do that fulfills a human need?

Where Will Users Interact With the App? This is highly important. If you build a placeless app, don't expect use to occur.

When Will Use Occur and With What Frequency? At what times and conditions do people use the app? How often do you want them to use the app?

Why Will They Continue to Use the App? What value are you giving them to adopt the app as part of their life?

Grab a Worksheet at www.revinity.com/mobile

Mobile Persona Worksheet

From your friends at www.revinity.com

Who Will Be Using?

What are Their Goals?

Where Will They Be Using?

When Will They Be Using?

Why Will They Continue to Use?

Persona Concepts

Concept One: Forget the Device as Part of the Persona

When we talk about hardware, we immediately fall into limitations, oddities and impossibilities.

These are minor details.

Forget about the phone. Design for use, not the device.

!!!

Concept Two: Digital is not a technology issue. Digital is a cultural issue.

And culture is changing.And culture is changing.

... Rapidly.

This is Zephyr. !

He’s had his own iPad since he was 2.

He’s 6 now, what do

you think he believes is normal?

Concept Three: Microboredom

(Keep checking, keep checking...)

Is there a 10 second version of your app? There should be, micro boredom is prevalent, I'm guessing many of you have checked your phones and promptly put

them away already today.

Concept Four: People Have Strange Relationships With Their Phones.

Watch what do with them

Our relationship with phones has moved into several weird areas:

!

• The phone as distraction • The phone as social protection • The phone as a pet • The phone as a phone • The phone as the voice to everyone

Wrap it up, Heaton. What the heck have you been talking about?

Stop falling in love with your fake audience.

If you start with an idea, and work the 5Ws, chances are good you have a persona mostly done that is closer to reality and can act as the realistic meter you need for app design and development.

@tigerstripeThanks. Be Good.