Abstract
International studies have shown that there are a number of areas that affect the success of the method (Browne 2011). Some companies do not want to use the method because they think that their segmentation tools can achieve the same result. In other companies, the data that creates the foundation of the persona descriptions is inadequate for any sensible use. Furthermore, the quality of the descriptions may be poorly executed so that the personas are seen as unreliable. Finally, some companies dive into developing personas without having thought about what they are to achieve. But what is the status of using the method in the world?
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In informal conversation, people use the word ‘persona’ to describe a variety of segmentations and customer models. However, for customer experience professionals, it’s important to distinguish between personas that have a basis in interviews and observations of real customers and other customer models that don’t shed light on customers’ motivations and expectations as well as the context of customers’ behaviour.
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For our evaluation of the web design capabilities of nine leading UK interactive marketing agencies, we used 19 criteria, which included user research, persona creation, and persona application. See the ‘The Forrester Wave™: UK Interactive Agencies—Web Design Capabilities, Q1 2010’ report [56310]
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You can read more about intercultural design and the challenges at www.culturalusability.com
References
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Browne, J., Manning, H., Beckers, A., Gans, R., Chu, W., & Catino, S. (2010, April 1). The Forrester Wave™: UK interactive agencies – Web design capabilities. Forrester reports.
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Vorre Hansen, A. (2009). Personas nu og fremover. Retrieved April 7, 2011, from http://personas.dk/?p=155
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Nielsen, L. (2013). Personas in a More User-Focused World. In: Personas - User Focused Design. Human–Computer Interaction Series, vol 15. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-4084-9_12
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-4084-9_12
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