Friday, Jan. 17

Personas and Presentations

Personas, Unger and Chandler

• Personas describe user types, motivations, and behaviors

• They direct you toward representative users and design decisions

• Often used in workplace settings, particularly for teams that have to coordinate across design tasks

• Data-informed, and uses multiple methods

• Data should inform number of user groups and they should focus on motivations, goals, and tasks

Presentations, Slattery

• Audience orientation

• Consider how to organize, write, and style your presentation

• Slattery recommends opening with a context and overview, main message in the body, and summary at the end

• Color should be high contrast

• Visuals should be simple, similarly sized and placed, and high quality

• Recommends understanding the space of the presentation, rehearsing, and planning for questions

Reading Responses and Questions (10)

Kosuke

I've often seen presentations that answer a problem/challenge that they might be facing in the form of a persona. They often times had a product or feature that they would want to discuss and then present a persona John Smith/Jane Doe that is facing the problem that they are trying to address. I don't quite have an example off the top of my head but I've seen it as a sort of rhetoric to enhance the presentation to showcase who the audience is and its practical usage.

Henry

The concept of personas from Unger and Chandler can be applied to user interface design for e-commerce platforms like Amazon. A company like Amazon builds complex personas based on browsing history and purchase behavior to offer recommendations that best-fit users' needs and interests. For example, Amazon usually suggests related products or streamlines the checkout process. This reflects Unger and Chandler's belief that good personas help designers and stakeholders empathize with users, focus on their goals, and make informed design decisions that align with user needs. 

Agustin

As Slattery outlines in his strategies for a good presentation, it takes practice and skill to create and present content in a way that is easy to understand and engaging. Which is why I am grateful to have been required to work on presentations for classes that go as far back as grade school. Here at Santa Clara, I have had to do a presentation in over half of my courses in all kinds of different courses, which just showcases how common presentations are in every subject. No matter what career I end up pursuing after graduating, I know that the skills of presenting will follow me, and the years of practice in school certainly help in my preparation.

I think many of us know about the qualities of a good presentation, such as good eye contact, good balance of visuals and text on the slides, and well preparedness. But, is there a skill in presenting that may be overlooked but is still important for a successful presentation?

Kendra

Who are stakeholders exactly? In the Persona reading, it mentions them a lot, so I wonder to what extent they are involved in workplace/corporate settings.

Kira

One question I have is if empathy maps could be susceptible to the biases/assumptions we discussed in crafting personas since it relies somewhat on pre-existing knowledge?