The Way You Hear It Is The Way You Sing It: Early User Research and Provisional Personas

1. The Way You Hear It IsThe Way You Sing It:Early User Researchand Provisional Personas Brian Smith Reaching Across Illinois Library SystemILEAD USA – Illinois – March 2015

3. Who am I? • Librarian • Website builder for RAILS • Work mostly with Drupal CMS • Busy planning a big site redesign • Created first website in the mid-1990s • Public library board member

4. Who are you? • Team FLOP • Team Make It Count • Team Makestravaganza • Team Pop-Up Kits • Team Spectra • Technology Teamsters

5. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Clonard_RC_Church_St_Finian_06_Detail_2007_08_26.jpg CC:by-sa

9. we are doing this project for the users

10. The Importance of User Research

11. WRAP Model for Decision Making • Widen your options • Reality-test your assumptions • Attain distance before deciding • Prepare to be wrong User researchcan contributeto these steps.

12. Secondary Statistical Data

13. Demographic & Comparative Data • factfinder.census.gov • illinoisreportcard.com • ibhe.org/Data Bank • IPLAR – contact rjones1@ilsos.net • imls.gov/research

14. More Library User Data Local: • Website use statistics • ILS data • Strategic plan research National: • pewinternet.org/topics/libraries

15. Primary Data

16. Talk With People! Ask Questions! • Community Representatives • Network outwards from your CRs • Library users • Organizations that serve the same audience • Colleagues at other libraries • IHLS & RAILS mailing lists, RAILS Fast Facts survey • Team members (tricky …)

17. Some Things to (Maybe) Ask About • How do you usually do [something relevant to project]? • Tell us about an experience you had doing that. • What did you like? Problems encountered? • Did you get what you wanted? What was missing? • What device(s) do you use? • What are some of your favorite websites and apps? • Do you use Facebook/Twitter/etc.? Are you on any discussion boards or Listservs? Tell us what you do on them. • We’re thinking X … What should be part of it to make it useful to you?

18. Team FATE (ILEAD USA 2014) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAMzH6E8VWk

19. User Personas

20. User Personas Are: • Tools that can be used to focus development • Hypothetical individuals who are members of major groups of users • Fictional, but true-to-life, realistic individuals • Based on research • Summaries of the users’ traits and behaviors • Concise; built on a common template

21. A User Persona Is Not: • An “average” user • An “ideal” user • A universal representation of everyone • What you want your users to be like • A description of how you want your project’s/product to be used • A complete biography of the fictional user • You

22. What’s In A Persona Profile? Depends on project, typical content includes: • Name • Picture • User group represented • Personal information (age, job, etc.) • Technology use and habits • Motivation – needs and goals related to your project • “Money quote”

26. Start With Provisional Personas Early provisional personas can be especially useful to make sure that all team members are on the same page.

29. Questions to Help Build Persona • Identification: Age, gender, education, job? • What’s this person’s story? • Devices and software used? • General online habits? • What info/services does person need regarding your (prospective) content? • Current sources person goes to for that stuff? • Why would this person go to your site/resource? • How would this person find your site/resource?

30. Group Exercise

31. Two Parts! • User Research • Create Provisional Personas But first … Forget about your project for now. Think about you library catalog.

32. 1. User Research • Don’t use the persona sheets yet! • Envision a couple types of library catalog user that you’ve helped (or that you are) • For each type of user:- Some people at table ask questions- Others at table answer as that user • Take notes!!!

33. Sample User Questions • What devices do you use? (Computer, tablet, phone) • What are some of your favorite websites and apps? What do you like about them? • Tell us about some things you’ve used the library catalog for. • Tell us about some problems you’ve encountered with the catalog. • Where else do you go to find things online? • What kind of books, movies, music and games do you like? • What sites, services, and stores do you go to, to get or use video, music, books and other stuff? • What else do you do at the library? • Add your own user questions!

34. 2. Create Provisional Personas For each persona: • Make up the person’s name • Write down the name and user group • Choose an appropriate face sticker for the user, or draw in your own • Use information gathered in the user research stage to complete the persona sheet

36. Questions to Help Build Persona • Identification: Age, gender, education, job? • What’s this person’s story? • Devices and software used? • General online habits? • What info/services does person need regarding your (prospective) content? • Current sources used for that stuff? • Why would this person go to you? • How would this person find you?

37. Additional Resources • usability.gov • smashingmagazine.com/2014/08/06/a-closer-look-at-personas-part-1 • smashingmagazine.com/2014/08/13/a-closer-look-at-personas-part-2 • measuringu.com/blog/personas-ux.php • google.com/search?q=library+personas • Just Enough Research - $9.00 ebookfrom abookapart.com/products/just-enough-research

38. Thank you! brian.smith@railslibraries.info