FORBES, 10 Mar 2009: Kurt Vonnegut said that he wrote his books thinking of how to please one person: his sister. By focusing on one person's taste, Vonnegut was able to create books that had wide appeal. This same idea has been employed to create software. Alan Cooper, father of programming language Visual Basic and a leading proponent of the principles of interaction design, has trumpeted the idea of designing for one specific type of individual.
Cooper formalized the idea of focusing on a specific class of individuals through the concept of personas, which are detailed descriptions of hypothetical people who are going to use a software system. In interaction design, these personas are used to guide brainstorming and evaluation of the user interfaces and functionality. The perspectives that have proved useful in analyzing several problems are as follows:
The individual perspective: People using software to perform specific tasks in their work and daily life.
The team perspective: People using software to collaborate and communicate as a group.
The department perspective: People using software to track and coordinate the activity of multiple teams.
The organization perspective: People using software to track and coordinate the activity of a corporation, government agency or large organization.
More...