For this project, my team and I created personas for Facebook as part of the class LIS 519: Personas. We used the method "Quantitative Validation" as described by Steve Mulder and Ziv Yaar in their book The User is Always Right. In this method, qualitative data is first gathered and then analyzed to understand the "why" of user behavior. Quantitative data is then used to "validate" the assumptions from the qualitative data by testing hypotheses on a larger and statistical sound number of participants.

PROCESS

• Reviewed previously conducted research about Facebook users and user data
• Recruited particpants with a wide range of internet usage, Facebook usage, age (ranged 14-57), and gender
• Interviewed 25 people over the phone and in person
• Compiled a list of "top takeaways" for each participant
• Conducted a 50 question survey
  • 104 respondents; 96 with Facebook accounts
• Analyzed the survey responses with Excel
• Created an affinity diagram to group personas into segments

RESULT

This project was very well received by my professor. Her feedback was, "Overall, the Persona Portfolio in a word was—excellent. Well, okay, in another word? Incredible. The research approach was tremendously detailed, rigorous, and well suited for your persona objectives... Your research strategy was textbook (if a persona guide did exist ;-)), well planned and well executed."

Download the persona profiles (.pdf)

ROLE

• Research: Conducted eight interviews and assisted in writing the survey. I created two out of the five persona profiles.