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Persona Grata

By Mathew Schwartz

August 19, 2002 12:00 PM ET

Computerworld - Need guidance when freshening your site? Meet Val Mason, a divorced woman in her forties with two children, who works full time and values her free time. But Val isn't real - she's a persona made up of bits of real users that Discover Card, part of Discover Bank, uses to stand in for its 9.8 million registered, card-carrying Web site users.
"User-experience design is really about what the customer thinks it should look like," says Colleen Zambole, vice president of electronic commerce at Discover Card in Riverwood, Ill. By using personas, Discover Card can make changes that address customer needs, she says. In addition, personas give project team members a common language for discussing customer-centered design.
Personas aren't just built out of thin air; they're amalgamations of all available data, including surveys and focus groups. Watching users is also crucial. "What people say and [what they] do is really different," says Colin Hynes, director of usability at Staples Inc. in Framingham, Mass.

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