Personas are my jam. I teach a full-day training course on them: what they are, why they work, how to create them, and how to use them to do great work. I love teaching this course because personas are one of the most abstract components in the very analytical discipline that is UX. I love demystifying this abstract topic, making it concrete, and addressing common pitfalls that practitioners encounter.
Personas are fictional representations and generalizations of a cluster of your target users who exhibit similar attitudes, goals, and behaviors in relation to your product. They’re human-like snapshots of relevant and meaningful commonalities in your customer groups and are based on...
When designing a usable UI we must consider the context in which the interface will be used. For mobile design in particular, users often hold their device in one hand while doing other activities—watching television, walking, or even driving. In such circumstances it can be daunting to tap and
If the file foo.txt was a text file and the application required a graphics file, this command would constitute an error on the semantic level of the dialogue even though it was syntactically correct. Therefore, the user would get some kind of error message ranging from "ILLEGAL FILE" to "The file
One of the most famous memory studies is Miller’s “Magical Number Seven” (Miller, 1956). Miller reviewed several published memory experiments and determined that, when shown lists of elements of various length, most people could roughly remember 7 (plus or minus 2) elements. But Miller’s
Decentralized P2P Lending Services vs Networks
They act as a third party and escrow in the lending transactions between their clients. The only difference from regular P2P lending services is that they don’t limit users to working with fiat, but facilitate the use of cryptocurrencies, and also use their own token for various services and
How Blockchain Brings Innovation in Staffing?
The communication between them is increased and the data shared by both parties is safe and secure. Recruiters will determine the potential candidates and reach them. Encrypted info place informed blockchain cannot be altered and deleted making certain high security and privacy. Again, privacy and
Sharing Economy 2.0: Technology is Removing the Need for Single Asset Ownership
The Internets ability to make an impact on sharing smaller items such as home DIY tools hasn’t really caught on — but it could. And that dream is one that keeps so many entrepreneurs dreaming and producing. Transaction costs and convenience still favor purchasing an item outright. But
The Most Hated Online Advertising Techniques
Of the 330 open-ended responses, 232 were qualified responses which were coded to indicate the ad attribute that the participant mentioned (e.g., obstructed content, animated ad) and the affect expressed by the comment (e.g., positive, negative). For example, if a participant indicated she
why personas fail
Store Finders: Why People Still Need Locator Links
Lastly, think about other tasks that might involve finding a location and provide links to the locator tool on those pages that support the tasks. For instance, after looking up information on how to return a purchase, users may want to search for a nearby store if the item can be returned in
User Need Statements
First time practitioners are often apprehensive to include anything that is not a verbatim finding from research in their need statements. However, it is important to remember that our users will not always directly say or even know precisely what they specifically need or why. Instead, it is our
The Mobile Checkout Experience
What distinguishes the best mobile checkout experiences from standard ones is the extra attention to detail. Mobile-focused, user-centered UI elements can help move your users through the experience with speed and ease. Though often overlooked and easily forgotten, these seemingly small design
Empathy Mapping: The First Step in Design Thinking
Aggregated empathy maps represent a user segment, rather than one particular user. They are usually created by combining multiple individual empathy maps from users who exhibit similar behaviors and can be grouped into one segment. The aggregated empathy map synthesizes themes seen throughout that
One Billion Internet Users
Another implication of this demographic shift: U.S. market share and Silicon Valley buzz will become less important than international use as the metric for judging the potential of companies and technologies. The Mac, for example, already matters less than you think. Although it has a prominent
WP Engine Supports the Domain Connect Project .
If you’ve launched a site on WP Engine recently you may have noticed a new feature that allows you to easily connect to your domain name to your site. This integration is powered by an open source technology called Domain Connect, which enables WP Engine to find your DNS provider and be
why personas fail
WP Engine Participates in the Day of Understanding
Diversity has long been an important topic for WP Engine. CEO Heather Brunner often says “diversity attracts diversity.” This means that as a company naturally attracts and retains diverse talent, that diversity is sustained from the inside by employee referrals. Ultimately, the
WordPress for Good: The Price of Water .
This year, WP Engine partnered with The Lovie Awards to bring Lovie For Good, a project highlighting digital experiences bringing positive change to the world. From an algorithm to promote compassionate leadership to campaigns recognizing the importance of fresh air, these winners are using the
5 Steps to Service Blueprinting
In a service blueprint, customer actions are depicted in sequence, from start to finish. A customer-journey map is an ideal starting point for this step. Do note that a blueprint’s focus is the employee experience, not the customer’s experience, thus this portion does not need to be a fully
Top 10 Application-Design Mistakes
Despite the domain-specific nature of most app usability problems, here are 10 common mistakes that we frequently see across industries. Five of these issues (#1, 2, 3, 4, and 6) were also included in the original article —which goes to show how durable usability guidelines are. All 10 of the
Customer Journeys and Omnichannel User Experience
A great customer experience is the product of an effective and well-designed omnichannel ecosystem. To achieve it, organizations must research and understand the customer journeys that users take as they complete tasks across devices and channels. To every single customer, a journey is one holistic
Images of Fitbit next smartwatch reveal heart-rate improvements
Fitbit is on schedule, as its boss James Park keeps reminding us, to launch its next smartwatch by the end of the year. We don’t know what the smartwatch will be called, though Blaze 2 seems likely, but thanks to leaks we know its design and some of the hardware improvements. Images obtained by
Groundbreaking Tips for Managing Big Data
Big data is the type of data that is characterized by informational and technical features. A huge and ever-growing data volume, a variety of data formats and a log of records nature belong to the informational aspects. Traditional solutions are no longer suitable for capturing, storing and
The Internet of Things (IoT): Is your future secure?
We’re currently on the verge of the greatest human evolution possible. Where the shift is from Information Age to the Digital Age. Where intelligent devices can feel the presence of human and ask accordingly. This phenomenal shift is due to a person’s desire to create efficiency, specifically
4 Ways Early Stage CTOs Can Learn to Roll With the Punches
Internally, you’re the company’s technical guru who can handle anything from a QuickBooks installation to the beginning stages of product development and management. Don’t be surprised when you learn there’s no one else around to set up G Suite calendaring and payroll software
why personas fail
The 6 Biggest Risks Today’s Internet Entrepreneurs Must Battle
Naturally, most people are hardwired to be risk averse. It’s a survival mechanism that’s ingrained in our DNA to prevent us from walking into dangerous situations without some degree of safety or preparation. It’s why our ancient ancestors wouldn’t walk around the woods without a weapon and
RW Q&A: Monisha Perkash, founder of Lumo Bodytech
Perkash came up with the idea for Lumo seeing her co-founder and CTO, Andrew Chang, suffering from debilitating back pain. Perkash is married to a spine and sports physician, so she could understand how important posture really was. Perkash advised Andrew to attend a posture class and as a result
Why Personas Fail | Scoped Search: Dangerous, but Sometimes Useful
Scoped Search: Dangerous, but Sometimes Useful
Users behave like stubborn, bullheaded teenagers when it comes to searching for information or products online. We do what we want and deal with the consequences later. That is why most people who use scoped search only get to it after they’ve seen the list of results and realized that it does
The Illusion of Completeness: What It Is and How to Avoid It
In order to browse news articles on the Yahoo Digest iOS app, users must swipe to reveal the next article. This gesture is much like removing the top card from a deck of cards to reveal the card below (and it’s the reason why this interaction pattern is called a “deck of cards”). In this
Page Parking: Millennials' Multi-Tab Mania
Growth in the number of browser tabs over time during one usability-testing task. The currently active tabs are shown in blue. Red represents tabs that have been closed by the user; those tabs were thus no longer present in the browser’s tab bar. In total, the study participant employed 12
