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HomeRants > Talk like a human being. > Probe your audiences--gently.> Create  personas > Example

 

 

Creating personas:

A persona is a made-up person you will write for.

Striving for a goal

Dress up your character

Escape the skills trap

Develop a cast of personas

Write for these personas

Example:
Persona for a Team Developing Architectural Drawing Software

Emma Aragon

Age: 35.

Birthday: March 26.

Family:

Mother of Adrian (12), Lucero (10), and Jose (6). Her husband Herb is the head of the morning shift down at the Sears Auto Parts shop at the Coronado Mall.

Job:

She works as an architect of one-family homes in a three-architect firm, Aragon, Carter and Rodriguez, in downtown. She's responsible for:

  • Meeting with potential clients
  • Interviewing them
  • Preparing preliminary estimates
  • Sketching out floor plans
  • Refining the design
  • Working with the engineering team on air, electrical, and plumbing plans
  • Preparing budgets
  • Supervising contractors during construction

Meeting with the partners to plan expanding their practice into office buildings and manufacturing plants

 

Education:

She has a B.S. in Physics, and a Masters in Architecture from the University of New Mexico, and she is working on a Masters in Business Administration through the Anderson School of Management, at UNM (only two more years of night and weekend courses).

Vehicle:

She drives a six-year-old white Ford pickup with a dream-catcher hanging from the mirror.

Concerns:

Her concerns include daycare for her youngest, healthcare for her grandmother Elisa Baca, who lives in the house next door, and the poor quality of her neighborhood elementary school, Los Gallegos, which regularly ranks in the bottom third of all schools in the state.

Current Practice:

For blueprints, she uses AutoCad but hates its interface, and for presentations to clients uses consumer programs such as 3D Architect, because the results look more attractive, and help clients imagine what the house will look like. For contractors, she uses AutoCad, but finds it imprecise, hard to show small corners, and difficult to label.

Goal:

In using drafting software, her main goal is to create full schematic drawings that her contractors can understand and follow, with zoom-in close-ups of difficult intersections, fully legible labels, and layers that line up accurately.

She expects her drafting software to offer the highest technical precision and up-to-date conformity to code.

She does not need 3D graphics from the CAD program, because she uses a consumer product to show clients what the house will look like.

When she has a question, she expects the Help to offer several different ways to do a task, and an explanation of the difference.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Who is this persona?  What goal is he pursuing with a Lego truck on his hat?

 

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