Re: Creating personas for WAI site redesign

Hi Patrick--
Thanks for the link to Indi's article. 

She makes a good case for not relying on demographics. I do agree that it is easy to make assumptions about people based on our experiences and prejudices, and that stereo-typing should be avoided. That said, personas are a short-hand way to think about people, and, if you're careful about not imposing your perceptions, can be an effective way to express user objectives and motivations. 

I think that whether gender, age, location or other demographics should be included in a persona depends on whether they are relevant to understanding the person for whom you are designing. Sometimes they are.

Mike
 

    On Tuesday, June 14, 2016 3:45 PM, Patrick H. Lauke <redux@splintered.co.uk> wrote:
 

 On 14/06/2016 17:31, Mike Elledge wrote:
>Personas include demographic information and
> descriptions of behavior. It will be munched together to describe
> several fictitious persons that designers can keep in mind so that their
> needs aren't overlooked.
>
> [...] but you all
> might have at least googled "personas" before taking her to task.

Assuming the "you all" also included me...

Leaving aside the spying/NSA thing (which derailed the original point), 
the issue of gender is a valid one, and one that deserves care and 
sensitivity (just the same way that I note there's no question about 
ethnic background, religion, etc?). In relation to personas, see for 
instances 
https://medium.com/@indiyoung/describing-personas-af992e3fc527#.ydxwxw1j7

Anyway, I'll leave it at that. The survey's been at least modified away 
from a binary male/female, which some people may find 
inappropriate/restrictive, which is at least a start, thanks.

P
-- 
Patrick H. Lauke

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