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Personas, Scenarios and User Journeys in A1

Personas

A1 Task: You need to create 2-3 personas (provisional, yet believable). Work through the
following steps to identify your users, segment them, and then build relevant personas.

1. Identifying assumptions about users

• Identify ways the service’s users are typically categorised. Document the categories/
archetypes. E.g. uni students categorised by demographics, technological attitudes, or
lifestyle/psychographics (see next page). Brainstorming these categories reveals our
assumptions about users and gives a starting place for deconstructing stereotypes.

2. Moving from assumptions of user categories to user goals
• Brainstorm user goals and list them individually on post-its. User goals are
descriptions of what he or she wants or needs to do. It can be useful to begin each
user goal statement with either “I want” or “I need.” Focus on what you learned from
the user research as well as your own experiences as users. Example user goals:
o “I want to find a quiet place to work away from distractions”
o “I want to change tutorials”
o “I want to find a sport or activity I could join to make friends”
• After brainstorming, place your post-its under the relevant headings of the
archetypical user categories outlined in Step One.
• If an “I want” or “I need” statement can be filed under more than one user category
duplicate the statement so it is represented under all relevant groups. There will likely
be patterns in the post-its.
• Look through the sticky notes and cluster them as appropriate to expose themes.

3. Forming skeletons
• List the major themes of “needs” and “wants” that surfaced from the post-its.
• Compile a list of major themes that surfaced around user needs and wants. You might
even give these thematic groups nicknames at this point (E.g. Quiet studiers, Social
learners etc.).
• Discuss each group and take notes on their most important needs, goals, and
preferences. It may be possible to combine groups.
• Outline a skeleton for the group (a skeleton is brief and can be made up of a bulleted
list).
o Example skeleton: Undergrad who uses the library to get away from dorm to
study in quiet spaces, needs to “camp out,” needs to spread stuff out and stay
for a while, brings own laptop to study, seeks out food and drink to take to
his/her study spot.
• If you have many skeletons, determine the primary and secondary users of the
service.


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4. Forming skeletons into personas
Develop 2-3 of the most relevant skeletons into persona cards – we’re looking for ones that
have pain points.
• Name and archetype (E.g. “Sally the Independent Studier” “Simon the Team Player”)
• A description of the persona’s needs or concerns
• A description of the persona’s immediate goals in using the service
• A description of the persona’s attributes/abilities/experience
• A quote that sums the persona’s primary needs.

5. Digitise the Persona card using one of the digital tools listed in the Week 04 Pre-Seminar
Activities.


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Demographics
• Age. How old are your users?
• Gender. How does your user population divide by gender?
• Income and purchasing power. If your product is for personal use, what is your users’
household income? What economic possibilities and constraints do they face as individuals
and as within families?
• Location. Are your users urban, suburban, or rural? Do they come from certain regions, a
certain country, or are they spread out all over the world?
• Company size. If your product or service is for a business, how big is the company? How much
money does it make? Where does it operate?

Technological (attitudes)
• Hardware ownership and access. Do they own the equipment or device? Is it their personal
equipment or is it shared? Is it owned by their employer?
• Connectivity. What connections do they have to the Internet or other data and
communications services? How do they connect, and how often? Expense?
• Experience. How have they been using any relevant technologies? How comfortable are they
with them?

Environment
• Use location. Do they use your product or service at home? At work? While moving about in a
city? While traveling or commuting?
• Use time. Are they going to be using the product during work or during their off hours? Will
they be using it first thing in the morning, when they’ve just returned from the opera, or after
the day’s last milking?
• Tool context. What other things do they use or do at the same time as they’re using your
product? How important are their tools? How does your product fit in with them? How often
are they interrupted while using it? Who uses it with them?
• Competition. What products or services are competing for your users’ attention? What is the
nature of the competition? What benefits do competing products offer?

Lifestyle/Psychographic
• Cultural. Particularly in global or cross-cultural research you can’t assume that your research
stakeholders share users’ languages, religious commitments, definitions of emotional and
physical health, family responsibilities, etc. Personas can help you tease these out.
• Values and attitudes. What do your customers value as individuals? What is important in their
lives? Thrift? Speed? Fun? Comfort? What has their experience been with services like yours?
• Media. What kinds of media do they access & turn to? Activities. What else are they into in
their lives?

Roles
• Titles. Even if the people involved don’t have official titles, they will likely have some specific
name for what they do—such as “teacher,” “parent,” “fan.”
• Responsibilities. What are job responsibilities of each group? What do they get rewarded for
(both formally and informally)? How?
• Training. How did they learn to use the product? Did they educate themselves or receive
training?
• Power. What is their responsibility for the product? Do they choose it, or are they assigned to
it?
• Relationships. Whom do they consult when making a choice? Whom do they work with?
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Scenarios

A1 Task: You need to select one of your personas and create a context scenario for that
persona. Remember to select a persona that has relevant/significant pain points – preferably
the one with the biggest issue.

1. Brainstorming Context Scenarios
• Brainstorm 2-3 different context scenarios for your persona. Write your possible
context scenarios on post-its under your persona. For example, “Sally the
Independent Studier wants to book a library study space but cannot locate the web
page on the library website.”
• Use the Scenarios information on the next page for guidance on understanding
“Context”.

2. Writing Draft Context Scenarios
• Choose one context scenario for your persona and write up a full context scenario
(paragraph).
• The scenario should include information from the persona regarding their needs or
concerns, immediate goals, and personal attributes.

3. Write up Final Scenario in Digital form
• Write the final scenario in a box or outline to distinguish it from the rest of your
report text. It’s a good idea to include the persona name up the top, so it is clear
which persona the scenario relates to.

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What are Scenarios?
A scenario is a description of a persona using a product to achieve a goal. They describe an instance of use
in context. Scenarios are usually narratives that tell a story describing one or more tasks in a specific
environmental situation. For the design of services and systems we can use scenarios to understand and
communicate what activities our system needs to support. Scenarios are flexible and can become more
detailed throughout the project life-cycle. They should focus on the activities people do and the context in
which they do them. They help focus design efforts on the user’s requirements, which are distinct from
technical or business requirements. They are also particularly good for discussing requirements with
stakeholders who do not have any technical background. Scenarios are the plot and personas the
characters.

Why Use Them
• They can provide a vehicle for communication as well as a mechanism to explore design solutions.
• They help mediate the thinking and communication required in design.
• They are concrete yet flexible enough to change and morph in detail as the project progresses.
• They help us understand the flow of experience and are tools for thinking about design (they help
us reflect and reason)
• They help us present and situate solutions
• They help identify potential problems
• They are easily understandable by all stakeholders as they are story-like
• They can provide rich descriptions of use in context which can spark ideas and inform design
• They help determine if the design solution is appropriate
• They can help us see social factors and help understand a user’s multi-channel experience (i.e. on
and off-line).

When to use them
• They can be used in the beginning of a project to help flesh out requirements.
• They can be used as tools to explore design solutions.
• They can be used to validate designs and reveal design assumptions.
• They can be used to hang specifications and wire-frames off within documentation.
• They can be used by testers to test the final designs.
• They can be used for competitor analysis whereby a scenario can be used to compare a variety of
sites to each other.

Understanding context
The following should be considered for each persona:
• Goals: What is the user trying to accomplish? How do the user’s actions fit into the objectives of
the organization?
• Process: What are the steps the user will follow? How does information flow from one step to the
next? What are the various roles (creator, contributor, editor, approver) that are involved?
• Inputs & Outputs: What materials and information will the user need to successfully use the
• interface? What will they need from the interface to continue with their overarching goals?
• Experience: What similar things has the user done in their past? How has the organization
survived without this design in the past?
• Constraints: What physical, temporal, or financial constraints are likely to impose themselves on
the user’s work?
• Physical Environment: How much room does the user have to work? What materials on their
desk?
• What access do they have to necessary information (such as user manuals)? What is taped to their
monitor?
• Tools In use: What hardware and software does the user currently use?
• Relationships: What are the interconnections between the primary user and other people who are
affected by the tool?
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User Journey

A1 Task: Create a User Journey for your persona based on the context scenario you have
created above.

1. Walk through
• Embody/portray the user persona as they moves through the context scenario. As the
Persona moves through the scenario, convey their thoughts, feelings and actions out
loud and make notes about what you are observing.

2. Draft the User Journey
• Using the information (steps noted above) draw up a User Journey for your scenario.
Make it clear in the journey where the Pain Points occurred and the thoughts and
feelings that are experienced throughout the journey.

3. Digitise your User Journey
• Using one of the digital tools outlined in the Week 04 folder under Pre-Seminar
Activities, turn your draft into a digital, more polished, professional-looking version.
Compile your User Journey with your Personas and Context Scenarios.