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Subject:RE: Are you using personas? From:Sean Hower <hokumhome -at- freehomepage -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Thu, 30 Jan 2003 12:17:38 -0800 (PST)
Anyone interested in personas should visit the Cooper web page. http://www.cooper.com/ They have a lot of articles on designing and using personas.
You should also read "The Inmates are Running the Asylum" This book is mostly about the computer industry, but it talks extensively about personas, how to create them and how to use them to better your design.
Our department is currently working on developing personas. I just finished "personas" for different agency types that our company works with. Our next step is to research and create the people.
Persona's are just a part of audience analysis. They are the actors for whom you right. You start using the persona when you are designing your documentation. So, instead of thinking to yourself "this book is for adminstrators" you think, "this book is for Bob, a 35 year-old network admin who is overworked and underpaid," some such other details. You then design specifically for Bob, not for network admins in general. The catch is that Bob is based on user analysis of real network admins.
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"And in the morning, I'm makin waffles." ~ Donkey
Sean Hower - tech writer http://hokum.freehomepage.com
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