RÓSA GU RÓSA TRITA-CSC-A 2010:08 ISSN-1653-5723 ISRN–KTH/CSC/A--10/08-SE Ð ISBN-978-91-7415-655-3 JÓNSDÓTTIR Personas and Scenarios in Use Personas and Scenarios in Use in Scenarios and Personas RÓSA GUÐ JÓNSDÓTTIR Doctoral Thesis in Human-Computer Interaction KTH 2010 KTH Stockholm, Sweden 2010 www.kth.se Personas and Scenarios in Use Rósa Guðjónsdóttir Avhandling som med tillstånd av Kungliga Tekniska högskolan framlägges till o!entlig granskning för avläggande av "loso"e doktorsexamen fredagen den # juni $%&% kl &%.%% i sal D', Lindstedtsvägen (, Kungliga Tekniska högskolan, Stockholm. TRITA-CSC-A )*+*:*, ISSN-+-.'-./)' ISRN–KTH/CSC/A--+*/*,-SE ISBN-0/,-0+-/1+.--..-' Production notes 2e text in this thesis is set in Minion Pro, designed by Robert Slimbach &33% for Adobe Systems. Headings and sans-serif text parts are set in Myriad Pro, designed by Robert Slimbach and Carol Twombly &33$ for Adobe Systems. 2e layout is designed by Joakim Walldén and Pétur Helgason using Adobe InDesign and output as 456. Front cover illustration by Cecilia Mella depicting Nepomuk personas. All illustrations in the thesis are by Cecilia Mella. Photographs are taken by the author. Exceptions are noted in "gure texts where relevant. Paper version: Digital printing by AJ E-print AB, Stockholm. © Rósa Guðjónsdóttir [email protected] www.pinkpu8n.com $ Abstract Personas are "ctitious characters that represent the needs of the in- tended users, and scenarios complementing the personas describe how their needs can be met. 2e present doctoral thesis considers the usage of personas and scenarios and how they are used in system develop- ment projects. 2e study is motivated by the relative lack of empirical data on the persona method in actual use. 2e study was carried out in the context of a large international research project called Nepomuk and involved two conceptually dif- ferent "eld studies. On the one hand, "eld studies in user settings were conducted, which aimed at creating personas and scenarios, and for which a user-centered design approach was applied using partici pant observation, contextual interviews, video brainstorming and proto- typing. On the other hand, a "eld study in the setting of the Nepomuk project itself was conducted, which aimed at observing how the per- sonas and scenarios were received and used in the project work. 2e work conducted in the project setting was a multi-sited ethnographic "eld study, which was documented through ethnographic writing. 2e project setting "eld study showed that the persona method was di8cult to put into consistent use, and the support of persona advocates guiding usage would have been helpful. 2e method was used without much e!ort to communicate about the needs and desires of the intended users, but was less successful in compelling project members to use personas and scenarios during various design activities. 2e "eld study also revealed alternative usages of the method that can be supported and utilized. 9 2e contributions of the thesis include an account of the e!ect the storytelling aspect has on the creation as well as usage of personas and scenarios. Also, the essential elements of constructing personas and scenarios are discussed as well as the prerequisites for making personas and scenarios support the design process in system development projects. Lastly, the thesis describes how personas and scenarios can support the communication of user needs and desires to project members and stakeholders as well as support design activities in system development projects. :;<=>?5@: Ethnographic "eldwork, multi-sited "eldwork, participant observation, user-centered design, user research, personas, scenarios. # Acknowledgements I would like to thank my supervisors Yngve Sundblad and Henrik Artman for their support throughout the years, especially during the "nal writing phase. I would also like to thank the participants in the "nal seminar for their inspiring comments and support, Jonas Löwgren for taking on the role of opponent and (in Icelandic alphabetical tradition) Ann Lanz, Anna Swartling, Jan Gulliksen, Kerstin Severinson-Eklundh, Kristina Groth, Minna Räsänen and, last but not least, Sinna Lindquist. I also appreciate the support, encouragement and companionship I have received from all my colleagues in the ABC group at :DA. I am also thankful to my :DA colleagues in the Nepomuk project, especially my "eldwork companion Henrik Edlund, but also Anette Arling, Bo Westerlund, Cristian Bogdan, Kicki Groth, Pär Lannerö, Sinna Lindquist and William Bolinder. Moreover I wish to thank all my other colleagues in the Nepomuk project for allowing me to carry out my study in the project, for answering my questions, for telling me stories, and for providing me with such rich data. I am also grateful to those who found the time to discuss the persona method with me and provide me with additional information, in particular the usability practitioners, their clients and clients and partners of PinkPu8n. I am especially thankful to Cecilia Mella for all her fantastic illustrations, both the illustrations for the Nepomuk project and various PinkPu8n projects as well as the illustrations for the thesis. 2ank you Joakim Walldén and Pétur Helgason for taking care of the layout and making the thesis look so good, Bo Westerlund for the inspiration and Minion, Nepomuk project colleagues for sharing their photographs ( and Karen Williams for proofreading the text. Despite all this help and support, any errors or other shortcomings are my responsibility. 2e work presented here was conducted within the Nepomuk project, funded by the European Commission as part of the C@D Semantic based knowledge systems programme. I am also grateful for funding from the Centre for User-Oriented IT Design (BC5), the Swedish Institute of Assistive Technology and UsersAward. I am indebted to all my lovely friends and family who have heard far too many times: “No, I can’t. I have to work on my thesis.” I hope you are still there when I get back from 2esisland. I am also grateful to my parents, Valdís og Guðjón, for always supporting me while most of the things I’ve taken on have not made any sense to them and even though my mother really got worried about my future when I showed her all those Yanomami videos. And to Hannes Guðjón and Pétur, I would simply like to say that “life without you would be like a broken pencil… Pointless”. Uppsölum, en á Sólvöllum í anda, Apríl $%&% Rósa Guðjónsdóttir E Table of contents G Introduction ........................................................................................GG G.G Personas and scenarios ..............................................................GH G.I 2e subject of the thesis ............................................................GJ G.K Research topics ...........................................................................GL G.H Personas representing my intended readers ...........................GL G.J Overview of the thesis ...............................................................IM I 2e "eld settings .................................................................................IK I.G Project setting .............................................................................IK I.I User settings ...............................................................................KM I.K Other projects settings and data used in this thesis ..............KN K Research approach .............................................................................KO K.G Ethnographic "eldwork.............................................................HM K.I Ethnographic writing ................................................................HN K.K Design approach ........................................................................JK H Personas and scenarios ......................................................................PG H.G A short history of personas ......................................................PG H.I Personas ......................................................................................PH H.K Scenarios .....................................................................................PL H.H Persona critique and research ..................................................PN H.J Creating personas ......................................................................LG H.P Application of personas and scenarios ....................................LJ H.L Strengths of the persona method .............................................LN F J Nepomuk user research .....................................................................NG J.G Contextual interviews ...............................................................NI J.I Observations ...............................................................................NJ J.K Other sources of data ................................................................NN P Nepomuk personas ............................................................................OG P.G Institut Pasteur ...........................................................................OK P.I SAP Research ..............................................................................OH P.K Time Manager International ....................................................OP P.H 2e Mandriva Club ....................................................................OL P.J Introducing personas and scenarios in Nepomuk ................ON L Nepomuk project observations ......................................................GMK L.G Project meetings