Flipping through my notebook recently, I came across my notes from our second LA UX Book Club meeting. We discussed About Face 3, and were lucky enough to have a phone Q&A with the original author and inventor of personas, Alan Cooper. I thought it would be great, along with the public launch of this blog (Hi, everyone!) to share some of what he said to our group that day.
Angel on the "phone" with Alan Cooper
I didn’t make a transcript, so these quotes are rough, from my memory and notes. If you remember it differently, feel free to let me know in the comments.
On design:
- Good design is finding focus. Where do you focus on making the experience great?
- Users will forgive painful interactions that happen on the fringes if the core experience is great.
On personas:
- Nothing is more misunderstood than personas.
- Our most often used tools can also be crude.
- The important thing about personas is that they each represent a unique set of goals.
- When in use, personas need to be thought of as an actual, single person.
- Personas should be a process of discovery rather than invention.
- The value of a persona is that it gives focus and specificity. They can tell what (and who) not to worry about designing for.
On Agile:
- Just doing the technical “Agile” steps doesn’t make you agile. Really believing in the process makes you agile.
- As designers, we need to get on their schedule.
- Agile is good because developers take responsibility for quality through the process and ask themselves, “How can we make this better.”
On the future of the UXD practice:
- He used to tell people that he “swept sand off the beach.” Our job is an endless job. For every broomful we sweep off, developers sweep two on.
- There followed 15 years of people ignoring him. “The web is full of sand.”
- But the meme that he and others set loose in the ’90s has put down roots. What used to be “Get smarter users,” has changed to “Create smarter products.”
I really enjoyed our chat with Alan who was gracious, entertaining, and insightful, and I’m happy to be able to share this experience with you. And I’m really looking forward to sharing even more with you here in the future!
