I never really thought the "cuteness" thing was an issue at all. I thought the writing style of the persona is much more of a roadblock. I've looked at the example from Chopsticker 4-5 times (it was posted in another previous thread as well) and I've never had the attention span to read the whole thing. It's a bunch of long paragraphs, and that's what makes it hard to digest, IMO.
Also, how relevant is the information? What design decision would you make based on the following information from the persona? "He doesn't suffer fools, just as he won't put up with anything that stands in the way of getting his job done." I realize part of the perceived value of personas is the narrative. I do think, as someone in this thread suggested, that formatting the data in more of an outline format - headings, bullets, etc - removing some fluff, would go a long way towards getting people to actually consume the data. If I'm expected to constantly refer back to a document when I'm designing something, then don't format the thing so it takes 10 minutes to read, and you have to sift through long paragraphs of content to find valuable info. The two goals at the very beginning and the chunks of data below Timothy's picture on the first page were the most valuable things to me - it took me 30 seconds to digest that information. But then again, I haven't read the whole thing :-) I'm not trying to be harsh towards the creator of the Chopsticker persona, I think the persona has many strengths, but also areas for improvement. Jeff On Nov 17, 2007 4:44 PM, David Walker <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > This is very true. It also happens with marketing and political campaign > personas: witness how the media keyed on "Susie the Soccer Mom" from Bill > Clinton's first election campaign. > > The cuteness factor needs to be addressed, especially in corporate cultures > where <fun> acts as a discount inside conference rooms. > > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Robert > Barlow-Busch > Sent: Friday, November 16, 2007 5:46 PM > To: ixd-discussion > Subject: Re: [IxDA Discuss] Examples where personas are *not* useful > > > > I would suggest to those that make persona deliverables that the > > format, the template and the deliverable is a core reason why > > personas are having trouble being adopted properly at more places. > > I think Andrei's entirely correct with this suggestion. The format of > personas is so... well, it's just so CUTE. Not surprisingly, a lot of people > can't get past this fact. > > "Oh, wook at the wittle customers. Dey're so cuuuuute! Who's dat big boy? > Who's dat big girl? Ah, wook at the pictures. Oh! Dey even have *names*!" > > This throws up barriers to adoption. Which is unfortunate, because much of > the power of personas comes from our ability to process character and > narrative; we're hard-wired to respond to that stuff. Scenarios address half > the equation by introducing narrative, but they're more easily accepted in a > business context because they aren't cute. > > -- > Robert Barlow-Busch > http://www.chopsticker.com > > ________________________________________________________________ > *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* > February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA > Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ > > ________________________________________________________________ > Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! > To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe > List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines > List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help > > ________________________________________________________________ > *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* > February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA > Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ > > ________________________________________________________________ > Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! > To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe > List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines > List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help > ________________________________________________________________ *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
