I've become a persona skeptic and it's because I've seen many an "imaginary" persona in my life. I respect the integrity of personas, and I just really wanted to share, in my own little way, how anyone can apply personas to a web design project, using the actual data-based process.

1. @yellowicepick
There’s actually a data-backed
way to make personas
5 steps to creating a functional persona

2. @yellowicepick
This is dedicated to my designer friends.
So you guys can tell whether the persona you were given is sufficient.
Or if you should ask for a revision.
(And, yes, this is if you have a waterfall process and
weren’t actually part of the research.)

3. @yellowicepick
First, a primer, for persona first-timers.

4. @yellowicepick
Personas versus Market
Segmentation

5. @yellowicepick
Personas Market
Segmentation

6. @yellowicepick
Market Segmentation
• Can be quantitative or qualitative-but-based-from-a-quantitative-assessment
• Is a rigorous statistical analysis of customer attributes that occur together in
a population
• Studies are some of the biggest projects a market research team could do,
because…

7. @yellowicepick
You’ll need
A crapload of data The badest-ass
statisticians

8. @yellowicepick
The statisticians take all of the data points
and look for patterns that occur together,
then propose different sets
of statistically significant trait clusters
for the managers and clients to weigh and choose
which best represents the brand.
This is how it’s normally simplistically visualized.
Check it out on Google image search.

9. @yellowicepick
These are more examples of how they’re visualized.
Usually in market research reports.

10. @yellowicepick
Personas versus Market
Segmentation

11. @yellowicepick
Personas are archetypes.
Which DOES NOT MEAN that you pull them out of thin air.

12. @yellowicepick
Personas are communication tools.
They contain granular information about behavior,
up to little nuances that might affect a design or feature
(say, for example, eyesight).

13. @yellowicepick
But, yes, usually personas are a mix of a
number of similar themes or people.
Told with enough detail.
(An amalgam. As I like to call it in my brain.)

14. @yellowicepick
So, why are they
(personas and market segments) different?
Aren’t they both just ways of communicating groups of people?
Usually expressed in cutesy ways (The Soccer Mom, The metrosexual)?

15. @yellowicepick
Different data-gathering styles;
different roles.

16. @yellowicepick
Market
Segmentation
Uncovers needs of a quantifiably
stable subset of people
Used to find the positioning that a
product or brand may take to
appeal to that market

17. @yellowicepick

18. @yellowicepick
Market
Segmentation
Uncovers needs of a quantifiably
stable subset of people
Used to find the positioning that a
product may take to appeal to that
market
Personas
Also reflects a group of people
Digested to a level where:
if your design team sees it, they will
be equipped with information they
need to make design decisions

19. @yellowicepick
What does that mean?

20. @yellowicepick
Design is
part-science, part creativity.

21. @yellowicepick
When you design highly
interactive products
(tools or furniture, websites,
apps, services),
you don’t design for your
own taste.

22. @yellowicepick
You design for the people
who will use them.
You make decisions based on:
“How will this best allow my users to do
what I want them to do on this?"

23. @yellowicepick
Will its
form
specifications
features
look
flow
actually improve what they’re
supposed to improve?

24. @yellowicepick
Which means, you have to be
asking little questions along the way, like:
• What
• In
• What
• What

25. @yellowicepick
Little questions that
market segmentation studies typically
don’t answer.
They could; they just typically don’t.
Or it’s too costly
(for them to answer every minute detail).

26. @yellowicepick
Market Segmentation
is a market research method that tells you
what your brand’s slant could be.
And its “target market”.
Commercials, ads, marketing campaigns,
usually use it to communicate a lifestyle.

27. @yellowicepick
How does a persona help?

28. @yellowicepick
Well, digital product development
happened.

29. @yellowicepick
You think you could use a market
segment to design Youtube?

30. @yellowicepick
Digital platforms are used by a broad
array of people, regardless of “lifestyle”.
Take, for example, e-mail.

31. @yellowicepick

32. @yellowicepick
Same goes for digital products.
Google’s clear single-field design doesn’t work because its users are “hipsters”
or “working moms” or “DILFS of Disneyland”.
The design works because it showcases the primary function that the product
allows users to do.

33. @yellowicepick
Now, to the process!

34. @yellowicepick
I learned this process primarily from handbooks and materials from Cooper U
(Alan Cooper pretty much “branded” and established the use of personas) and
Human Factors International, adapted to how I use the concept in real life.

35. @yellowicepick
1.
Ask what your design team
needs to know.

36. @yellowicepick
I hate it when you’re on a project and
people are forcing other people
to use useless data.
The way to guard against that — ask.
Ask the people who will be using your
deliverable, what they need.

37. @yellowicepick
In other words, apply your
user-centered design skills at work,
for crying out loud.
The way to guard against that — ask.
Ask the people who will be using your
deliverable, what they need.

38. @yellowicepick
2.
Actually get user data.

39. @yellowicepick
I don’t care if it’s Facebook Likes,
Facebook comments, Analytics.
Personas are based on the user data
surrounding behavior.
Personas should contain behavior and all the data related to
changes in behavior.

40. @yellowicepick
"How do I know what data is related
to behavior, Anj?"

41. @yellowicepick
"How do I know what data is related
to behavior, Anj?"
You don’t.
That’s why you find it.

42. @yellowicepick
If we knew the data that caused changes
in user behavior,
this wouldn't be called research,
it would be called recall.

43. @yellowicepick
On a serious note, draw up your hypotheses.
The points you want to test, so you
can plan your research.

44. @yellowicepick
Pro-Tip:
Go for maximum data points in the
least possible data-gathering time.

45. @yellowicepick
How?
Analytics
Contextual
Inquiries

46. @yellowicepick
Note:
Use your design team’s questions to think
of data points to observe.

47. @yellowicepick
The even fun-ner part!
Synthesis.

48. @yellowicepick

49. @yellowicepick
3.
Find the Patterns driving
different “flows”.

50. @yellowicepick
So, you’ve seen the analytics flow and
talked to users…

51. @yellowicepick
List all the attributes that led users
down a different journey path from
one another.

52. @yellowicepick
“But, aren’t there templates
for these things already?"

53. @yellowicepick
“But, aren’t there templates
for these things already
Yes.
But, this is based on a workflow,
where they used examples,
but didn’t tell people to use the exact same traits.

54. @yellowicepick
Huddle with the others,
who also looked at user behavior

55. @yellowicepick
Let’s say, for example, you were designing a social services platform.
You could have observed that these affected behavior:
Reading level or educational attainment
Type of work (Corporate or non-corporate)
Age started working
SSS tenure / maturity
Smartphone ownership
Age group
Whether had family member knowledgeable about
process

56. @yellowicepick
4.
PLOT YOUR USERS

57. @yellowicepick
This presumes you got a good range of users :)
The smallest number of in-context interviews I've
tried this on is 6*.
Any lower than that, I won't do a persona.
It's definitely more "comforting" and stable to have more data. But.
Timelines. And Return of Investment over time.
(6 in-context interviews would already take up 2-3 working days, for
facilitation alone.)

58. @yellowicepick
Your list should look like some sort of
bare-bones abacus.
You can do these with Post-it's, on your computer
or just a plain old piece of paper.

59. @yellowicepick
Choose how you want to define the range of each attribute,
as you plot your customers.
Reading level or
educational attainment
Type of work (Corporate
or non-corporate)
Age started working
SSS tenure / maturity
Smartphone ownership
Age group
Whether had family
member knowledgeable
about process
“Low” range of
spectrum
“High” range of
spectrum
A B CD E F
A B E F C D
B EF CA D
BF CA D E
A B E F C D
A BC D F E
C D EA BF

60. @yellowicepick
This presumes you got a good range of users :)
The smallest number of in-context interviews I've
tried this on is 6*.
Any lower than that, I won't do a persona.
It's definitely more "comforting" and stable to have more data. But.
Timelines. And Return of Investment over time.
(6 in-context interviews would already take up 2-3 working days, for
facilitation alone.)

61. @yellowicepick
5.
find patterns that make
up the majority

62. @yellowicepick
These give you an inkling of what type of
personas to create.
Incredibly polarized factors that result in different userflows
really need to be part of your persona. Traits with a few
outliers can represent secondary personas.

63. @yellowicepick
Now, you get to weigh
how many personas you'll create
enough to be useful* to your team.
*Remember that the purpose of personas is to
ground the customer journey map or content
flows on real "human" traits.

64. @yellowicepick
Congratulations!
NOW, you get to put the traits together and
create your persona.

65. @yellowicepick
This is finally the part where you
weave together the data to create
a story of what could be a real, tangible character.
(Like the often-used “card” template, with a photo,
name, title and details).
5 Steps to Creating a Functional Persona by Angela Obias
is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-
NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

66. @yellowicepick
Also, check out these foundational online
articles on creating personas:
The Origin of Personas, Alan Cooper
Getting from research to personas, Kim Goodwin
Persona Creation, Daphne Ogle et al.
And practical advice on keeping them “fresh”
from A List Apart.