|
CREATING EFFECTIVE PERSONAS |
|
Written by Bo Zou
|
|
Wednesday, 21 May 2008 |
Persona has become a very common practice in the interactive industry, as well as a defining method in user centred design (UCD). However, it is too often the personas end up being too vague to be an effective tool for guiding design. They are often lack of details and clear structures to be useful to inform the key design decision making.
It is typical that personas are too narrowly focused, that they can not be very helpful in identifying the information a user needs to receive or create, nor do they provide detailed guides about the sensory and emotional aspects of the user experience.
A typical misconception about personas is that, if the design team see the picture, know the name, age or job title of the persona, the designers will be able to understand how the persona feels and what the persona needs. But the reality is that personas don’t talk!
If a persona that’s been provided to the designers without specific aspects clearly described that’s targeting specific design questions, it virtually does not tell much at all, except an empty shell in the form of a document.
The common problems with personas are:
- Lack of considerations of the needs personas’ audience (who is going to use the persona, and what does he / her need to make out of a persona?)
- Lack of a well planned structure or framework
- Presenting numbers and statistics out of contexts
- Lack of focus, and not addressing / identifying key information that informs key design decisions.
|
|
Last Updated ( Wednesday, 21 May 2008 )
|
|
Read more...
|
|
|
Just how many lottery tickets should I buy? |
|
Written by Bo Zou
|
|
Wednesday, 26 December 2007 |
(Please note that the copyright of this article and the ideas in it belong to Bo Zou, if you want to quote this article, please contact the author.)
Not many people have heard of the North Korean's version of communist "Mass Game", but almost everybody has bought a ticket or two of another type of western mass game -- the lottery.
It is one of our basic instincts to take risks, ever since the primeval era of the hunting apes. But what we are better now than our stone age ancestors, is that we can better rationally assess risks and make every risk-taking value for money.
A common question that we often ask ourselves is that "just how many lottery tickets should I buy?" It seems that the more tickets I buy, the more chances I get. But deep in our consciousness, we know it is not all correct, because we need to make a decision between risking losing too much money, and also gaining the optimal chances to win.
|
|
Last Updated ( Wednesday, 26 December 2007 )
|
|
Read more...
|
|
|
HCI: Past, Present and Future |
|
Written by Bo Zou
|
|
Saturday, 03 March 2007 |
|
HCI: Past, Present and Future
Bo Zou
A widely accepted definition of HCI is: HCI (Human-Computer Interaction) is a discipline concerned with the design, evaluation and implementation of interactive computing systems for human use and with the study of major phenomena surrounding them.
The term of HCI contains three basic notions: Human, Computer and Interaction. It is a relatively new discipline derived from Human-Machine Interaction, and the earlier Human Factors and Ergonomics studies which had boomed and fundamentally changed the way of design and engineering during the World War II. From the world’s first functioning computer, to the compact computers everywhere in today’s world, the concept of HCI has brought human and computers closer and closer. The interactions between human and computers have become more and more versatile, yet more and more usable and seamless. The boundary of human and computer is becoming more and more blurry and hard to distinguish.
|
|
Last Updated ( Tuesday, 15 May 2007 )
|
|
Read more...
|
|
|
|
<< Start < Prev 1 2 3 Next > End >>
|
| Results 1 - 4 of 11 |
