> > I'm not familiar with the development of personas... are they supposed > > to be representative of some kind of section of users? > > > Personas are archetypes that don't necessarily map directly on to any > one 'real' user. But the union of the personas you use on any one > project should, hopefully, be representative of that project's target > audience. > > I'd recommend reading the blog entries at cooper.com about persona > development: > <http://www.cooper.com/journal/personas/> > > And here are a couple of persona-related podcasts I've listened to > recently, that were quite informative: > <http://www.uxpod.com/index.php?post_id=160220> > <http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2007/11/21/usability-tools-podcast-robust-personas/ >
Thanks Calum. I thought that was the way personas worked - the talk of clustering was making me think cluster analysis... One research technique that I've seen used very productivity in the past, and which could be useful here, is the use of diaries. Basically, you issue your research participants with a notepad and instructions telling them to record their activities for a set amount of time. At the end of the diary keeping period, you do interviews with the participants within which you discuss the contents of the diaries. The nice thing is that the diaries enable the participants show you what *they* think is important. One further possibility would be to combine participant generated images with the diaries - either with digital cameras or just by taking screenshots. Allan _______________________________________________ Usability mailing list Usability@gnome.org http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/usability
