User personas

[mouxdesign]

A draft copy of user personas and how they can be used in the product development process.

User Personas

[mouxdesign]

Had a very insightful call 2 days ago at the bitcoin design community and gained the following insights;

figma file which we collaboratively worked on during the call.

• It was interesting to see other techniques and methods that UX designers are using to bring the input of users closer to the product development process. Essentially we learnt that:

• The traditional user persona needs to be adjusted so that its insights are more actionable to the development process.
  

Jobs to be done:

• Look at the app as being a "person" that has "jobs to be done", then by interviewing users find out what jobs the app needs to do to make those users happy.

• Tailoring the interview process to essentially uncovering what those "jobs" are, is how the traditional user persona process can be brought closer to the product dev process in a more actionable way.

[mouxdesign]

Last week we had a call within the community about user personas. We all jammed together on figma and brainstormed as to: 1) What are the different methods as to which the data can be collected? 2) What are the different areas in which we can collect information so as to make the personas as useful to builders as possible.

Link to figma file

The next step is to turn this larger idea into something more solid and then write it in the form of a how to for the bitcoin design guide.

[mouxdesign]

Draft of the write up around user personas that I created for the bitcoin design guide based off of the call we had and the collaborative ideas:

What is a user persona?

User personas is a tool used in UX design so that we as builders can create products that are more specific to one larger group of users. They help us serve users needs in a very specific way. We want to understand the goals and behaviours of this userbase as much as possible and we can do that by simply connecting with this group of people in various ways. The information we collect on the persona can then be used to inform product decisions. Lets say we have a persona called “Tim”, we could ask ourselves as we are building out the interface “what would Tim want here?”. Tim would be a real person with wants and needs and goals who we have interviewed or spoken to.

How can personas help us build better products?

• They help us to build empathy and allows us to understand what a users needs and expectations are when using a product.

• They can help to shape the product strategy, for example we can prioritize feature requests based on our core personas needs.

• They help us to understand negative experiences which users might have had with other products, we can then use this information to differentiate our product from competitors.

How to put together user personas

There are various ways in which a persona can be put together, it’s best to look at the resources you have and decide which way would be best suitable. Ideally one or two personas is more than enough to design for. It might even be possible to merge these into one.

The process to put together a persona has just 2 steps:

Connect with people

There are many ways in which you can connect with people to get an idea of the real person who is using your product on a daily basis. Here are some of the ways below:

Online communities

Sending a message within an online community asking for a few minutes for a quick chat or to fill in the survey.

Social media

If your team or people within the team have social media accounts where users are active you could post a tweet for example requesting people to fill in the survey or have a quick chat.

After we have reached out to people we can then decide to do:

Surveys

Any online survey tool could be used to create a list of questions which you can quickly send out.

User interviews

These could be in person interviews or online, simply record the interviews or take notes. <br?> Ask questions Below are some questions which are bitcoin related which you could ask to put together a persona to use during the build process. Part of the process of asking questions is also the psychology around making sure that those who you speak with feel comfortable and relaxed and that we are transparent with how the information will be used in the future. One could simply mention that small parts of the conversation will be used and that all their data will always be anonymous.

Dream solution What does your dream solution for (x,y,z) look like?

Features If you could have any feature in a wallet, what would it be and why would you have it?

Demographics

• Type of work

• Age

• Location

Goals What are the main tasks that you are trying to accomplish when using the app? Do you tend to make bitcoin payments or receive bitcoin payments?

Expectations What are some of their expectations and how can we make sure we are meeting those in the product design?

Dislikes What do you not like about the products that you are using at the moment?

Concerns What concerns do you have when using bitcoin?

Example: Bitcoin users personas from the research of Patricia

[mouxdesign]

Update: There is a live page in the Bitcoin Design Guide on the topic of User Personas:

• How to build them
• Why they are useful
• Examples of user personas