Zoe's Blog

Previously, we have gathered requirements but now it is time to start drawing out the solution. I like to start by identifying the users.

Why do I want to do this? I do this to start trying to think about the user's journey and to do that I need to understand what they want from the platform and if it aligns with our requirements. A good way to encapsulate this is to use personas.

You've probably heard of these before; simply put they are fictional characters that represent the main user roles for a system. If the requirements don't seem to align with what the personas would want, well then maybe we've caught on early that we should be aiming for something else. They are useful to ensure that you on the track of developing things based on what is the best for the user.

So let's take a look at our functional requirements-- what users can we identify?

As a general user, I must be able to see others opinions on a book so that I can see if others enjoyed reading it.
As a general user, I must be able to find a particular book so that I can decide if I want to read it.
As a general user, I would like to be able to find new books so that I don't run out of new ones to read.
As an author, I must be able to tell people about my upcoming book so that my fans know to buy it.
As an author, I must be able to tell people about my previous works so that they can buy what I have already released.
As an author, I should be able to interact with fans so that I can build up my fan base.

The more time you spend understanding your users can pay off significantly when it comes to trying to provide them with useful features that they'll enjoy using and most importantly, want to use because of it's, well, usefulness. So let's try and get some basics down for our case.

For the user and author personas we should think about:

Who are they? This question is used to think about the demographic that the persona represents.
What are the current problems they face in the problem domain? This means thinking about current things that frustrate them, particularly around the areas that our ReaderWriter platform is aiming to solve.
What is their general attitude or lifestyle? This involves anything from wealth to how they leisure or do business.
What do they like or dislike in the current problem domain? By answering this question we will get to see what the current competition is and is not doing so well on. By highlighting these behaviours or features, we can then work on ways to improve upon it in our solution.

It's really good to include others in this process, as you can get more ideas down, especially when you get a mix of people who know the problem domain well. As a group, you'll normally draw a picture and give a name to a user persona, then they'll start writing down anything about that person. By grouping these observations, general themes emerge as to their struggles or characteristics, as well as what they like or dislike.

Let's try to apply this process to our case, starting with the general user persona. Start by writing phrases that can answer the questions listed previously, or just anything that helps describe what this kind of person is like:

is an avid reader, particularly interested in thriller and crime novels
keeps bookmarks of books to buy on different platforms
is often looking for new books to read
has particular authors that he follows on Twitter
would like to know more about his favourite authors
goes to book signings
is a busy young professional
sometimes misses a new release of new up and coming authors
hard to keep on top of new releases or he forgets about past series that he enjoyed
uses social media to keep in contact with friends
likes using social media
would like more accurate recommendations for new books to read
uses review sites a lot, but doesn't always agree with opinions given on there
doesn't have time to go to the book store even though he would like to
ends up ordering a lot online
has lots of accounts for books-- Amazon, goodReads, etc
likes using kindle sometimes, as it means receiving books sooner
likes that you can still read a chapter of a book on amazon for free
doesn't often find others in his peer group that have the same reading interests

Now we need to sort them. This is when it's a bit easier to have sticky notes as you can discuss with the people you are working with why they belong in certain categories.

You should end up with a summary of the persona then. After doing this you should feel like you know them a bit better, so go ahead and give them a name. To fit in with the demographic, I'm going to call him Dan.

Demographic: is an avid reader, particularly interested in thriller and crime novels; is often looking for new books to read; would like to know more about his favourite authors; has lots of accounts for books-- Amazon, goodReads, etc; likes using kindle sometimes, as it means receiving books sooner; doesn't often find others in his peer group that have the same reading interests
Frustrations: sometimes misses a new release of new up and coming authors; hard to keep on top of new releases or he forgets about past series that he enjoyed; would like more accurate recommendations for new books to read; uses review sites a lot, but doesn't always agree with opinions given on there; doesn't have time to go to the book store even though he would like to
Lifestyle: has particular authors that he follows on Twitter; goes to book signings; is a busy young professional; uses social media to keep in contact with friends
Current domain: keeps bookmarks of books to buy on different platforms; likes using social media; ends up ordering a lot online; likes that you can still read a chapter of a book on amazon for free

Great, one down, one to go. I'll apply the same process to the author user-- let's call her Sarah.

Here's what I end up with:

Demographic: is later on in her career; happily married; lives in the city, and does all her writing in her apartment
Frustrations: feels like she's not very connected with fans; cannot seem to drum up much excitement for her new book release-- those interested are quite dedicated fans; costed a lot of money to set up own website but haven't seen much traffic; has to keep paying to get site updated; wants to know more about what fans think of her current series
Lifestyle: is a busy parent and juggles that with her writing; doesn't have time to maintain her own website, so has to hire others to do so
Current domain: has to pay a lot to advertise books to third parties; sometimes tries to use social media but is not comfortable with it; has to rely on her publisher to set up prize giveaways and events for the fans

Okay, so now what? We have these personas now but what do we do with them? We'll use these personas to help make decisions about our design and what tasks get prioritised for when, but that's jumping ahead. See the next article for how we start referencing these characteristics to get us inspired to design, as well as justify some of our choices.

Also, as a side note, I should mention that these user personas are not a one and done kind of deal. After creating them you should be sure to regularly add to them as you see fit, whether that is adding new ones or changing current ones. After all, they should represent your user base and as your user base inevitably changes, your user persona's should too. It also makes you agree upon these characteristics with your team mates, thus ensuring that others also start to understand the users too. It's a really good way to keep your eye on the ball in terms of what your users want and care about, and will make your UI better for it.