RE: User Profiles

["sbuckley" <sbuckley -at- onlinewriter -dot- com>]

Hi,

Another term is "personas" and it's gotten a lot of hype, especially with
marketing folks.  Check a site such as Wikipedia for a more detailed
definition.

There have also been some tech writing specific articles.  Try searching the
STC site.

I've seen personas used well and abused.  It's always good to have real data
behind them so you are creating for a conglomerate of "real" people and not
just making up who you would like to write/produce software for.  Try to get
as much data from market research and tech support.  I recommend getting
that data before you have a meeting with them so that you are prepared.

A name to also be aware of is Scott Berkun.  He wrote a book about this sort
of thing, and it's referred to a lot.  The sad news is that he did not have
a very high opinion or see a strong role for good user assistance staff.
It's rather unfortunate given the data UA can often add and the good to
which they can put such information.  Other than that he has some good
ideas.  You might want to be acquainted with his theories as well before
going into the meeting, though he's a bit dated these days.  Add a recent
Google search on personas to your to-do list for preparation.

Hope that helps.

Susan


-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+sbuckley=onlinewriter -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
[mailto:techwr-l-bounces+sbuckley=onlinewriter -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] On
Behalf Of Kevin McGowan
Sent: Tuesday, April 17, 2007 11:55 AM
To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Subject: User Profiles

Hi again folks,

I'm trying to assemble a list of possible user profiles for my product line 
(such a document/list does not exist anywhere). i need it to help me scope 
out the kinds of documents I should be creating...'cause no one is 100% sure

about that either.

Are there any rules/suggestions out there for doing this. I'll be talking to

the sales/professional services/support people. But if there are any special

tricks or tips that you've used in the past to create such a list, I'd love 
to hear about them.

Cheers,
Kevin

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