The User Is Always Right: A Practical Guide to Creating and Using Personas for the Web

by Steve Mulder, Ziv Yaar

How do we ensure that our Web sites actually give users what they need? What are the best ways to understand our users' goals, behaviors, and attitudes, and then turn that understanding into business results? Personas bring user research to life and make it actionable, ensuring we're making the right decisions based on the right information. This practical guide explains how to create and use personas to make your site more successful. The User Is Always Right: A Practical Guide to Creating and Using Personas takes you through each step of persona creation, including tips for conducting qualitative user research, new ways to apply quantitative research (such as surveys) to persona creation, various methods for generating persona segmentation, and proven techniques for making personas realistic. You'll also learn how to use personas effectively, from directing overall business strategy and prioritizing features and content to making detailed decisions about information architecture, content, and design. Author, instructor and internationally known speaker Steve Mulder has helped hundreds of clients enhance their web design and development process. As a regular speaker on the topic of user-centered design (UCD) Steve has gained a reputation as an industry luminary. His books include Web Designer's Guide to Style Sheets, Web Authoring Desk Reference, and Teach Yourself Photoshop in 14 Days.

Genres: Design, Nonfiction, Usability, Business, Research, Web, Technology

Kindle Edition

First published August 21, 2006

Reviews

[Murray · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book on deeply understanding how to put together and utilize personas in a design project. Great information with detail, but still clear and very understandable. Really helpful for anyone trying to make the best use of this design tool.

[Fritz Desir · Rating 5 out of 5]

Probably best book or written material for that matter on using quantitative data to craft personas very rigorous approach (great for skeptical environments). You will be a better designer/strategist for reading AND applying what's in this text. And yes that means I liked it.

[Stefano Bussolon · Rating 4 out of 5]

In my opinion, one of the best books about qualitative user research and the creation of personae

[Skate]

So far only two chapters in, but already can tell it's an excellent book!

Great book - highly recommend it!

[Amir · Rating 5 out of 5]

Perfect book for how to discover and validate customer... strongly recommended

[Matt Watkinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an old book now, and one I read it in it's year of publication. Much of it is still valid in retrospect, and you can fly through the breezy prose in no time at all.

[Aneta · Rating 5 out of 5]

I will say with confidence that this is one of the best books about personas out there. The reason is that the approach described in the book is very practical, and every aspect of personas is shared in the context of business, marketing, and sales operations.

Read this book to understand how to uncover three types of personas: qualitative, qualitative personas with quantitative validation, and quantitative personas (also called mixed-method personas as the process involves a blend of qual and quant methods). The process of persona development is mapped out in detail so you won't get lost. Later chapters will explain how to not let your personas die, how to get a buy-in from the team, how to socialize personas, and how to apply personas to all major decisions a business has to make.

I really recommend this book as a starting point of your persona development process.

[jeni b · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic resource!

[Natalia Avdeeva · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great practical guide on how to conduct qualitative and quantitative research to create user personas.

[Micaela]

Free chapter is here: http://www.boxesandarrows.com/view/lo...