[kde-guidelines] Styleguide: Persona

[Heiko Tietze]

With rewriting the HIG we reach a part now that concerns usability primarily. It's rather unconventional to add those information to a HIG, but to have all information together, and to follow the theoretical approach, it makes perfect sense. Here comes the first page:

Structure > Task Flow
* Meet the needs of KDE's personas in your application. 
http://techbase.kde.org/Projects/Usability/HIG/Persona

== Purpose ==

A ''persona'' is the representation of a virtual user, based on empirical data. The description includes a concise summary of characteristics of the user, their experience, goals and tasks, pain points, and environmental conditions. Personas describe the target users, giving a clear picture of how they're likely to use the system, and what they’ll expect from it.

The advantage of persona is a common understanding over the development team and the dissociation from the personal point of view. In contrast to alternative methods like lead user(s) (usually the developer itself), a panel of real users or a description per sociological milieus, persona are more representative, faster to access, and easier to understand. 

== Guidelines ==
* Always define persona on ground of empirical data.
* Add enough information to establish a good impression of the target user. But do not write a novel and stay concise.
* Common elements are: name, job titles and major responsibilities, demographics such as age, education, ethnicity, and family status, goals and tasks they are trying to complete using the application, physical, social, and technological environment.
* Add a quote that sums up what matters most to the persona and a casual pictures representing that user group.
* Discriminate between primary (the basic user) and secondary (additional users) persona. If it makes sense, describe the group of users that is explicitly not supported by a anti-persona. Respect the law of parsimony and have as few personas as possible.
* Make sure your persona can act in different [[Projects/Usability/HIG/Scenario|scenarios]].

== Best Practice ==
* Try to use the predefined [http://techbase.kde.org/Projects/Usability/Principles/KDE4_Personas| KDE personas].

[[Category:Usability]][[Category:Structure]][[Category:Task_Flow]]

Maybe we should hi-jack the old persona page instead of only linking. What do you mean? 

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