Developing the user profile(s)

The practitioner's guide to user experience design

Read these to prepare for class discussion

  1. Chapter 1, Seeing Through Users' Eyes,
    pages 20-43
    in Miller, L. (2015). The practitioner's guide to user experience design.
    New York; Boston: Grand Central Publishing.
    2. Universal Principles of Design
  2. Universal principles of design
    Personas, 182
  3. Universal principles of design
    Mental Model, 154
  4. a relevant article from the Nielsen Norman Group
    User Expertise Stagnates at Low Levels
  5. Head, A. J. (2003). Personas: setting the stage for building usable information sites. Online, 27(4), 14-21.
    [PDF]

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Telling the user's story

Interactive Design
So how exactly do you learn about your users? What about them do you need to know? How do you communicate what you learn about them to your clients? And ultimately how do you use that information to make choices?

Once you've worked with your clients to define a set of user personas, and have a basic understanding of for whom you will be designing, there are a variety of ways you can learn more about your users. [p. 54]

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Personas

Interactive Design
A good persona can - and should - be used throughout the life span of a project. Reference your persona in the wireframes and designs and talk about them in meetings and presentations. Give life to your personas and you'll end up designing a great experience for the people they represent. [Dan Willig] [p. 61]

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Optional readings which may come up in class discussions

Personas

Hudson, W. (November 01, 2013). User stories don't help users: Introducing persona stories. Interactions, 20, 6, 50-53.
[PDF]

Pruitt, J., & Adlin, T. (2006). The Persona Lifecycle: Keeping People in Mind throughout Product Design , Amsterdam: Elsevier/Morgan Kaufmann.
[HF5415.15 .P79 2006]

Mulder, S., & Yaar, Z. (2006). The User Is Always Right: A Practical Guide to Creating and Using Personas for the Web , Amsterdam: Elsevier/Morgan Kaufmann.
[HF5415.1265 .M85 2007]

Kuniavsky, M., Goodman, E., & Moed, A. (2012). User profiles.
In Observing the User Experience: A Practitioner's Guide to User Research , Waltham, MA: Morgan Kaufmann., 482-501.
[QA76.9.H85 K86 2003]

Courage, C., & Baxter, K. (2005). Step 2: Personas.
In Understanding Your Users: A Practical Guide to User Requirements Methods, Tools, and Techniques , San Francisco: Morgan Kaufmann, 47-52.
[QA76.9.H85 C69 2005]

or as e-book]

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Sources of data on Internet users

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