Persona : En metod att utveckla och införa persona i en organisation

Abstract In this thesis we aim to extend the current theories about a concept called persona. A persona is a model of a user, mostly based on qualitative research and made with such accuracy that it to some extent can be used as a replacement of a real user in a development process and as a communicative tool. We will present a way of constructing this persona without meeting the actual users and follow up with interviews from the organization using them. This will lead to a model over the process of introducing personas as a concept in an organization,previously not familiar with the concept. The model is adapted to also work for projects and organizations where the concept is already known.Executive summary When developing and designing systems or products to be used directly by end users,it is important that these are developed with people in mind. One way to do this is to have close contact between the end user and the developer as can be seen in for example agile development methods. This is however not applicable at all times and therefore the developer need to get the information about the end user some other way. Often this is done by a spokesman or project manager for the ordering company who delivers the information to a project manager or spokesman for the systems development company who in turn make sure the developer get the relevant information. Of course this means that sometimes information that could be relevant is missed and sometimes even altered due to misunderstandings or even personal interest. One way to deal with this is to have a written description or model of the primary end user that is so correct and accurate that it to some extent could be used as a replacement of the real user. Especially effective is this when making design decisions and as a communicative tool to ensure a common and shared picture of the different needs of the users. Even if a description of the end user has been made, the view of the user is not always shared. This thesis will address the problem of creating this description of a user by using the concept of persona, first presented by Alan Cooper 1999 in his book “The Inmates are running the Asylum – Why High-Tech Products Drive Us Crazy and How to Restore the Sanity”. In our research we show that under certain circumstances, this can be done without actually meeting the real end users by interviewing and observing other people with very similar roles. Using this persona as a development tool requires introduction of the concept in the organization as well as introduction of the personas for the actual project. This research is summarized in a model that includes the different steps of creating a persona using several methods and also how to implement this tool in an organization or project. For each general step in the model there is a short description which includes the construction of personas and which activities to include in the introduction, either if personas is previously known or not. Appendix 10 in this thesis consists of a brief and more hands on guide of the process of creating personas and introducing the concept in an organization. This guide could serve as a quick introduction to the subject and could also be used at a later time to refresh some of the highlights in the process.Sammanfattning Denna uppsats avser utöka befintliga teorier runt konceptet persona. En persona är en modell av en användare, baserad främst på kvalitativa studier, och utvecklad med sådan precision att den till vissa delar kan ersätta en riktig slutanvändare i en utvecklingsprocess samt som ett kommunikationsverktyg. Vi kommer att presentera ett sätt att utveckla denna persona utan att träffa den riktiga slutanvändaren och följa upp med intervjuer från organisationen som använder dem. Detta leder fram till en modell över processen med att utveckla personas samt införandet i en utvecklingsorganisation som tidigare inte har använt sig av konceptet. Modellen är anpassad för att fungera vid införande av persona även i projekt och organisationer där konceptet är känt sedan tidigare