Week 5 Interactive Design Notes

Personas

Personas are a way to determine how users will approach or use certain sites. Personas is a way to help portray the unique and different approaches to interactivity, and provide personality to the interactive. Personas create a visual outlook and feel for the site, as it allows designers to question how their project will look like, how they would react, or how to describe it.

Other factors to consider for personas is to understand the cross platform experience, where as users in their 20s may consider looking at sites on their phone device, where as older senior members, will most likely not consider looking at sites on their phones. The expectation of the site should determine how users explore or finding specific content, depending on who you are aiming your site to, it is crucial to understand and point the project towards the audience that is entitled to. There are many users who use a variety of sites to locate something specific, or a regular browse through interactive. Sites such as Ebay portray the needs of all users, having the choice to free roam browse, or use their search engine to find specific items for sale, as browse and search are fundamental for a large amount of users.

Mental Models

Mental models are thoughts forming around an idea or an activity, the word mental derives from the mind state, and a model that is a representation of the objective. All users experience these mental models as they are valued expectation, these mental models also help provide an outlook and a understanding of creating the site and how users will approach to this. Having mental models is key to creating an interactive site for all users to be satisfied. This is also important for designers to consider how users will approach a specific problem, as all users are different, mental models guide the flow of the design and allows your design to succeed in providing all the necessary needs for the audience.

Artefact Personas

Artefact personas contribute the communication of the project to the users. How would your site respond to the needs of an individual, and how does it communicate specific areas?

Artefact Personas are very useful for client meetings, as it gives everyone a context to individually evaluate the design preference of users, whether someone dislikes a feature, but someone else may like it. This development creates a personality design that fits towards the specific users and to comfort their needs and expectations. For example, Waterson discusses that medical device for elderly patients, would use their devices more if the personality of the interactive is similar to visiting a nurse. The tone of the site and style aids contributes greatly as a strategy to convey users to utilize sites often as it fits to their taste. Using keywords can also provide the experience to drive the overall design content, words reassure the users to feel comfortable in their zone and allow them to feel safe and determine on what they are looking for.