If you have read Alan Cooper's The Inmates are Running the Asylum you would have discovered an amazing interaction design tool called 'User Personas'. A persona is a user archetype you can use to help guide decisions about product features, navigation, interactions, and even visual design.
When I used to work in advertising we had something similar and at FCB I've used a methodology called 'Mind and Mood' to do persona development. This basically involved putting a representative user/audience in front of a camera and having them talk freely of things they do, how they work, how they play, just about anything. The insights you get from such an exercise is unbelievable.
Of course, the Cooper Methodology and Software Personas are slightly different but the essence is the same and they are both used as effective design tools. To get you started on User Personas I would recommend the Alan Cooper book highly followed by the following links:
Personas and User Profiles from the STC Usability SIG page
The Research Triangle
SBI-Razorfish Presentation
Personas, Participatory Design and product Development: An infrastructure for Engagement.
From User to Character
Constructing the User
Personas: Theory and Practice
[links thanks to the CHI-Web Mailing List]
Posted by Navneet at July 1, 2003 11:28 PM | TrackBack | Comments disabled due to spam| Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
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