Lecture 3

Question 1

What is a User Journey and when can it be used?

Answer 1

• A specific sequence of user actions: doesn’t show all possible sequences.
• Shows context and user’s emotions
• Shows interactions with different touchpoint; doesn’t describe them in detail
• Context (where is the user etc)
• Progression (steps)
• Devices (also are they notice or expert?)
• Functionality (what type of functionality are they expecting? Is it achievable?)
• Emotion (What is their emotional state in each step? Are they engaged, bored annoyed?)

Can be used:

• What they do now (from user data)
• What they might do in the future (in ideation)

Pros:

• Demonstrating the vision for the project
• They help us understand user behaviour
• They help identify possible functionality at a high level
• They help you define your taxonomy and interface

Question 2

What is an Empathy Map?

Answer 2

Empathy maps can capture one particular user or can reflect an aggregation of multiple users.

• Says
• Thinks
• Does
• Feels
• A representation of what you have discovered about the user(s) through qualitative research.
• Represents a single user or a group of users.
• A collaborative tool to create common group in the design team. A way to communicate a user or persona to others.
• Used to create empathy and to help with decision making

### Pros
Get inside the users mind, to understand what they are experiencing. Very useful for decision making when you have come to a cross road.

### Cons
Doesn’t relate to a specific point in the journey i.e. they may have an accessibility requirement and struggle with a specific part of a system. You won’t get this in an Empathy Map. It’s more top level how the user feels.

Question 3

What is a Persona, what do they contain, when are they best used?

Answer 3

• Concrete representations of typical users
• Synthesised from data about real people
• Create a persona for each major user group

Personas contain:

• Goals
• Frustrations / Pain Points
• Needs
• Motivations / Intentions relevant to the new product.
• Factors that might influence their behaviour with the system: experience, opinions, disabilities.
• Details to enrich (name, photo, social history, quote)

Best used:

1. As characters for future user journeys
2. As a focus of ideation sessions, guiding design
3. For expert reviews of prototypes

Question 4

What process would you use to create a Persona?

Answer 4

1. Collect data about users
2. Analyse the research data
3. Brainstorm
4. Refine
5. Make them realistic

Question 5

Benefits and Drawbacks of Co-Created Personas

Answer 5

Benefits

• Very rewarding for co-designers
• Made the personas more ‘memorable’ to co-designers
• Allowed co-designers to get into the process of ‘being a designer’.
• Personas have more realism with specific details

Drawbacks

• Attachment to the persona
• Some unrealistic characteristics