Waypoints: Users and Personas

User Descriptions: To aid in user interface development, the project team developed several personas, or detailed descriptions of archetypal users. In developing the personas, we explored a broad spectrum of potential users and focused on varying goals, content familiarity, and technical skill level. While there are numerous combinations of these characteristics, we have chosen to focus on three fundamental personas that will help us develop the core functionality in our system.

These are:

Each persona has different skills that allow them to interact with the system in different ways. For example, the system administrator is highly educated, technically oriented, and knowledgeable about the content of the collection. In contrast, the casual browser is unfamiliar with the content of the collection, is less technically oriented, and has goals that may not be as precise as the other personas.

To validate who we thought our users were and test our persona hypotheses, we interviewed users in two different groups - administrators and customers. Observation was not a viable option because it would require travel, and be extremely time consuming. We interviewed a total of five people - three administrators and two customers. Separate interview questionnaires were developed to gather information from each group.

Personas:

Stan Ranier

Stan Ranier is a 42 year-old historian who works for the federal government in Washington, D.C. Married with two children, he earned his doctorate in history from the University of Maryland. Stan spends the majority of his evenings/weekends with his wife, Mary, and his children, Alex (13) and Sarah (10). In his spare time, he plays guitar with a local folk band, The Wandering Maestros. During the work week, Stan researches nautical history for the U.S. Coast Guard. In addition to responding to public requests for materials, he helps maintain a historical archive for the service. Included in his responsibilities, Stan often receives donated materials, reviews them for acceptance, and files the artifacts which are deemed appropriate for the archive. Working on a desktop computer daily, he is efficient at using e-mail, the Internet, and the many software applications necessary to do his job.

Goals: To promote U.S. history by responding to customer queries as quickly as possible; locate materials in the digital archive using the search/browse functionality in the UI; add materials to the collection as they are digitized and make them available to the public as quickly as possible; manage his workload through effective use of resources; leave work on schedule and spend quality time with his family at home.

(Note - Stan represents our system administrator and the person responsible for content management.)

Brett Smyth

Brett Smyth is a retired Captain from the U.S. Navy and a general nautical history buff. Living in Sun Lakes, Arizona, he enjoys helping fellow retirees locate information about places they served or units they were assigned. Brett earned his bachelor's degree while serving in the Navy and went onto a profitable career in sales after leaving the service. A widower, he recently celebrated his 65th birthday with his daughters Sara (37) and Nicole (32). Brett is familiar with computers, but his skills are limited to what he's learned through trial and error at the public library. He has recently begun conducting research for a memoir about his time in the military. In his spare time, Brett enjoys golfing and traveling the United States in his 32-foot recreational vehicle.

Goals: To remain close to his family; use the digital archive to search for specific content; browse queried materials quickly to determine whether they meet his needs; keep in touch with his former shipmates; continue research for his memoir.

(Note - Brett represents someone who would have a fairly good understanding of the archive’s contents and would likely be searching for specific information.)

Suzanne Peterson

Suzanne Peterson is a 22 year-old student who currently resides in San Francisco, California. Working on her bachelor's degree in sociology, she has been attending the University of San Francisco for the last 3 years. A skilled athlete, Suzanne windsurfs with her free time and often jogs along the San Francisco waterfront with her dog Buster. Suzanne uses her laptop computer on a daily basis and often conducts online research for her academic pursuits. As an amateur photographer, Suzanne enjoys taking digital photographs of her experiences and routinely shares them with friends and family via her blog.

Goals: To complete her bachelor's degree while continuing her leisure activities; interactively browse the archive in order to locate artifacts of interest.

(Note - Represents someone who has limited knowledge about the organization, but who might be interested in browsing the collection for enjoyment or for academic needs (i.e. teaching, written report).