Talk:User personae

Add snip from Enrico Zini's paper as a short introduction? Something good here? : Creating a persona

First thing: ask yourself: „who are you developing this for?“.

When you start designing a piece of software, you are trying to solve someone's problem. It is imperative that you know very well what kind of person you're working for, and keep it clear during all the design and implementation. Create a prototype target user (Cooper calls it „persona“), give it a name of a person that doesn't exist, write down its profile on a piece of paper and stick it to the wall. Write it in the beginning of your README file. Put as many details as you can, even pointless, but anything that can make you remember who's your target.

It can be that you are designing for yourself; but who will you be using that software? Which of your situated identities are you addressing? It could even be a new identity you want to give to yourself. Even so, nothing changes: create a persona, give it a name, write down its profile in great detail, add some pointless details even, and stick to it.

Just one small note: a persona must not be any real person. You are usually address a type of user more than a single user, so your persona should reflect that stereotype. Real persons have unique quirks, and if you take them into account you risk losing time and efforts in something pointless. Choose your stereotypes wisely. Whatever kind of user you are designing for, your persona must be the average sample of that kind.

-- Baxrob