Chris - I think that's a key point: Personas help us avoid the pitfalls of:
1. Designing for ourselves (aka art) 2. Designing for some stretchy variables in a market segment / demographic 3. Designing for the technology And I'd add, 4. Trying to design for everyone, thereby creating design that meets nobody's needs s 2008/11/18 Chris <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>: > A brief caution about one ugly trap of personas: Yes, they should be > based on user research. But their benefit does not come solely > through how a persona embodies the research. (It's a pretty lossy > compression of data if you think about it.) > > A major benefit comes from the effect they have in design on the > designer, i.e. they get you into an intentional stance when > designing. This is to avoid designing for yourself, or for some > stretchy variables in a market segment, or for the technology. > Getting into an intentional stance clears away all those extraneous > trappings and focuses you on helping personas achieve their goals. > > It's much, much better to have these personas based on sound user > research, so that you're not designing for the wrong expertise, > expectations, contexts, or goals, but a persona still has benefit to > design thinking even if you have to make that persona up on the spot. > > The trap to avoid then, is stressing out over the scientific-ness of > either the research or the personas' relation to that research. Do a > good qualitative job, and that will be enough. > > Longer article on Cooper's blog: http://tinyurl.com/5btgxe > > > . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . > Posted from the new ixda.org > http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=35624 > > > ________________________________________________________________ > 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 > ________________________________________________________________ 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
