CO4754 User-Centred System Design and Evaluation (2019)

Student ID: 20786088

Student Name: Vikram Reddy Gunukula
Our assignment describes smart trolley in terms of User-Centered System Design, which includes
various design methods like personas, storyboards, scenarios, prototyping, etc., I have focused on
personas in the presentation along with my team members who helped in the design process of the
smart trolley. I would like to explain about personas which had major support in our design. I had
even been involved in group discussions, brainstorming in the presentation, but I would like to
focus on personas mainly.

From my research, Personas were first proposed by Alan Cooper, who is a software developer.
He has used a prototype on how personas can be used with data in terms of informal interviews
with seven to eight people beginning in 1983 [Cooper 1999]. According to Coon, Persons represent
the characteristics and goals of archetypical users and also a large group of users. Personas include
1-2-page descriptions about their skills, goals, background information, and also the way in which
persona operates. Designers sometimes also add quotes of real users as fictional personal details
in personas for making them look realistic. Personas help us to find answers to important questions
like "Who are we designing for?". With the help of these answers, we can design the product which
satisfies the users in a much efficient way.

According to John Pruitt and Tamara Adlin, personas are used for creating character profiles,
which is based on real data. Before creating any kind of persona, we need to look for what type of
problems we are trying to solve and what data is required for it. It helps to communicate with the
customers effectively. These personas are created from various levels of information for a specific
product.

In my presentation, I have introduced three personas of different people who spend their time in
different kinds of shopping products. They have mentioned about spending on their products,
advises for better shopping, consistent time management in getting products, etc., they even
included their frustrations during shopping for their products. By looking at their information from
the personas, we decided to design a smart trolley that helps the users in the most effective way.
The benefits of this design help many users to have a way better to shop for their products. Personas
help in focusing on the current situation. Designers can gain a perspective when designing with
the help of personas.
Personas also include few drawbacks of not using the right attributes at the right time. Sometimes
personas also can be time-consuming and expensive when creating in terms of high quality for UX
design purposes.

I would conclude by saying that personas are a way efficient to use in terms of technology. It helps
in using real data. We even use customer surveys for data collection. Personas are useful for
branding, marketing, and strategy. They are like fictional characters to represent a different user
who might use their products and services. Personas must reflect real people with desires and
motivations.
References:

Cooper, A. (2019, November 14). The origin of personas. Retrieved November 15, 2019, from
https://www.cooper.com/journal/2008/05/the_origin_of_personas/.

Pruitt, J. and Adlin, T. (2010). The essential persona lifecycle. San Francisco, Calif.: Morgan
Kaufmann.