Are influencers and resellers valid personas?

On 6/5/07, Miquel Nieto Gallardo <[email protected]> wrote:
> In my last project I added to the personas' set the "influencer" -a
> well-known specialist that talks about a product in her blog reviews-
> and the "reseller" -the one that sells the product in his shop, together
> with the competitor's one.
> In fact, they aren't final users archetypes, but their short user
> experience is vital.
> Finally, the product interface wasn't altered by their specific needs,
> but we adapted some customer attention and sales services to cover them.
> ¿Any experiences in this direction?

The "Use Case" methodology recognizes "actors" or "stakeholders" as
generalized entities that operate or otherwise influence the system.
For example regulatory agencies.

So, the "personas" are a subset of the "actors."

A "scenario" is an instance of a use case. In the sense that
"instance" is used in object oriented design.
For example an ATM, always the same one ...
Describing the sequence of actions performed by a persona is a
scenario: a particular "execution" of the UI.
That scenario is one of the possible paths of the enclosing use case.
This is so because the use case contains (all the) alternative paths,
termed "variations", and triggered by conditions like for example
"wrong PIN" or "no $20 bills left".

Finally, a standard check after a use case is written is that "the
interests of all stakeholders are protected."
This is the point your question is related to. Stakeholders or actors
like for example a regulatory agency exert no action over the UI, but
their interests must be cared for.
In the case of a regulatory agency, it is much less whimsical than a
user because its behaviour is always the same and clearly stated in
written. It's sort of a "business rule" like for example "if the age
is less than 18 don't sell".

Personas are synthetic users, suitable for achieving consistent UI
behaviour. Making them realistic helps the designers imagine the
possible reactions after whatever the UI did. They are useful when
real users can not be reached, it's the case of a web banking
application vs. the internal systems of the same bank.
The web banking should be designed with personas, and the internal
system can be designed after interviews with users and other actors.

Saludos!
--
Juan Lanus

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