[Sigia-l] Personas vs Business Needs?

[Jonathan Baker-Bates]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: sigia-l-bounces at asis.org 
> [mailto:sigia-l-bounces at asis.org] On Behalf Of Ziya Oz
> Sent: 19 July 2006 19:06
> To: SIGIA-L
> Subject: Re: [Sigia-l] Personas vs Business Needs?
> 
> Jonathan Baker-Bates:
> 
> > How do you use personas?
> 
> Only when I want to look hip. :-)
> 
> Substitute "personas" with "usage patterns" (either field-observed or
> conjectured) you'd arrive at an unpretentious design 
> practice. Reduced to its essence, not all potential usage 
> patterns can be within the business scope of a design. Usage 
> patterns are at least a level of abstraction above a 
> collection of features.
> 

I agree, but I think you're confusing two things I said. I don't
(usually) map requirements/features lists against personas for various
reasons - mainly because personas are for establishing design directions
while feature lists are for helping things like cost estimation and
(later) the functional spec. I'm curious to see how others might
approach this because in the past I've found marrying the two to be
problematic, perhaps because it leads to function-led design, at least
in the mind of the client, if not my own.

<snip>
> 
> I design workflows. When I start I don't think about 
> features. I literally try to discern flows of interaction, 
> getting things done, moving from input to outcome, etc. Those 
> give me usage patterns, and the discipline to streamline the design.
> 

I do that too, in fact I do that every time. I'm curious though - are
you not interested in observing users to inform your judgement here?
Bear in mind the personas I'm talking about are based on actual users,
not simply conjecture.

Jonathan






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