Week 4: Users

In this weeks lecture we looked at the Users when design a product, and we also looked at how to look for data.

As mentioned in the lecture, we must first understand our users, this is accomplished in 3 steps (Ragu)

1. Finding out about the users
2. Analysing information
3. Create resources for design

Analysing data can involve many different steps, such as summarising interviews of the target user, revising tables and graphs.

However, as mentioned by out tutor Ragu, not all users will give you same need, and as a designer we must distinguish each users need and connect the dots to figure out the core need for the product.

The next step is to determine who the audience is for your designs; this is done once the data is analysed.  

Other questions to ask yourself as a designer are if there are any problems that need to be addressed, and which user needs will be addressed. However, Ragu mentioned that you can't address them all and it's best to create a hierarchy to determine the most important points to address.

We also looked at Personas, which will need to be included in our Project 1. A persona is a made up person who represents an individual of your target users.

There are some important factors to look over (but are not limited to) when writing a Persona, these can include:

• Biographical Background
• Physiology Background
• Social Dimension
• Psychological Dimension
• Ideology Dimension 

(Nielsen, 2014)

I had attempted to create a Persona for my Project , I did the best I could to my understanding of a Persona:

Octavia aged 21 lives in Canberra and is a second year university student studying Marketing and works as a waitress.

Being a second year student at university and working part-time as a waitress at a busy restaurant, Octavia tries her best to manage her time to balance studying, working and spending time with her friends.

She is very ambitious and wants to graduate her degree with high grades in order to obtain a successful job in marketing. She works hard with her studies and also with her job as a waitress, which is quite demanding as she works at a busy restaurant in Kingston.

She enjoys spending time with her friends, either by going out to the clubs on a Saturday night, or just by spending time at home hanging out with her friends. Octavia’s family lives in Sydney and she tries to visit as often as she can, coming from a traditional Greek background family is very important to her.

In her spare time Octavia enjoys doing martial arts, as a form of stress relief from university, and to her maintain her health and fitness. She also enjoys playing the drums, as she is very much into music, and enjoys riding her motorcycle.

Octavia isn’t into material things, and would rather spend her money on travelling overseas. Being the youngest of two older brothers, she is very tough and is very capable of taking care of herself.

Octavia doesn’t particularly enjoy studying for exams, as she feels as though she gets distracted easily and she doesn’t have a real study plan that she commits to.

PHYSIOLOGY DIMENSION

She has a physically demanding job, being a waitress she is on her feet for her whole shift. She balances this with martial arts to keep her in shape and to relieve stress.

SOCIAL DIMENSION

Octavia loves spending time with her friends, as she doesn’t have family that live in Canberra, she feels as though her friends are her family.

Octavia is very family orientated, coming from a traditional Greek background she puts her family very high in her life and would do anything for them.

PSYCHOLOGICAL DIMENSION

Being at university puts a lot of stress on Octavia, especially during exam times, she finds it hard to study as she can get distracted very easily and doesn’t have a set study plan.

Working as a waitress puts a lot of strain on her too, as working in the hospitality industry means long hours, being on her feet the whole shift, and having to deal with customers who are quite stuck up, especially in the area that she works in.

Doing martial arts help her with her keeping in shape and stress relief, as she is very hot headed and gets agitate quite easily.

Octavia enjoys playing the drums, as she finds it to be and escape from her stress and worries. She is very good at playing the drums and plays anytime chance she can get.

She also enjoys taking her motorbike out for a spin, as she feels free and calm.

IDEOLOGY DIMENSION

Octavia is a very sensible and well-rounded young lady, and she knows what she wants to achieve in life.

She isn’t very girly, having two older brothers has made her tough and a bit of a tomboy. However she does enjoy taking care of her health, skin and fitness.

Coming from a Greek background, she is very religious and her family has a big influence on her.

Her long-term aspirations are to graduate university and obtain a successful job in marketing. 

Hopefully I will be able to obtain feedback from Ragu to ensure that I have written and structured a persona correctly.

Reference:

Nielsen, L. (2014). Personas. Retrieved from https://www.interaction-design.org/encyclopedia/personas.html