| One of the really valuable contributions of personas is that they give discussions of skill levels a refreshing breath of realism. The scope of variation of users' skill levels is huge, and personas make that fact easy to see. The widely held, more-traditional model of user skill levels was shown as the euphemism pyramid in Chapter 2, "Cognitive Friction." At the top of the pyramid are "power users," assumed to be perfectly knowledgeable about computers, but lacking the training to program. The central trapezoid is "computer-literate users," who are imagined to have a fundamental understanding of how computers work, but who don't avail themselves of all its coolest features. "Naïve users" fill the bottom of the pyramid, and they are estimated to be as dumb as a brick and completely clue free. Here are some examples of personas that shatter the pyramid's false assumptions: Rupak works as a network installer in Los Angeles. He works with computers all day every day and is very adept at getting them to function, but he doesn't really understand how they work. He survives through his reservoir of superstition and lore, his capacity for rote learning, and his endless patience. Shannon is an accountant at a health spa in Tempe, Arizona. She is clueless about the Web, email, networks, the file system, and most everything else about computers, but she is an astonishing whiz with the Microsoft Excel spreadsheet program. She can whip out a new spreadsheet complete with charts and graphs that shows sales trends in no time at all. Dexter is the vice president of business development at Steinhammer Video Productions in Hollywood. Dexter has a pager, two cell phones, a pocket computer, and a wireless modem stashed in the pockets of his double-breasted suit as he walks between sound stages. He is a master of technology, and he can solve any problem. His colleagues are always calling him over to help find lost files for them, but he is really too busy for those time-wasting exercises. Clint is holding on line three! Roberto is a telemarketing representative for J. P. Stone, the mail-order merchant of rugged outdoor clothing. He sits in a carrel in a suburb of Madison, Wisconsin, wearing a telephone headset and using a PC to process phoned-in orders. Roberto doesn't know a thing about high technology or computers, but he is a steady, conscientious worker and has a wonderful ability to follow complex procedures without difficulty. After a few days of training, he has become one of J. P. Stone's most productive and efficient reps. He says, "I like the computer!"
Interestingly, neither Rupak, Shannon, Dexter, nor Roberto comes close to fitting into any of the slices of the pyramid. Even aside from its oppressive stereotyping power, the pyramid is remarkably unrepresentative of the population. Oversimplified models of markets don't help with design problems. |
