引子文章开始前，先看一段对话
摘自《交互设计之路》P124程序员：“如果用户想打印这个怎么办？”
经理：“我觉得我们真的不需要在第一个版本中加入打印功能。”
程序员：“但是有人可能需要打印这个。”
经理：“嗯，是，不过我们就不能推迟打印功能的加入吗？”
经理无法给出充分的理由来说服程序员，即使他的决定是正确的也不能让人彻底的信服，因为adidas告诉我们impossible is nothing，程序员的“可能逻辑”是无法抗拒的。
我想大部分业内同行在头脑风暴或者项目组会议上肯定不少遇到这样的情况：
A：“用户会这样这样这样...”
B：“可是我认为用户在操作时会那样那样那样...”
于是，与会人员迅速分成两派，一番激烈的争论后谁也没有说服谁...为什么同一产品的用户会有着截然不同的习惯与喜好？答案很简单，因为他们口口声声说所得用户实际上只是自己！
用户是什么？简单的说，用户就是产品使用者，但实际上这并不是一个简单的概念， ISO 9241-11国际标准对可用性作了如下定义：产品在特定使用环境下为特定用户用于特定用途时所具有的有效性、效率和用户主观满意度。我要强调一下这个词“特定的用户”，而上文两段对话中提到的“用户”根本不是特定的，它是具有“可能逻辑”的，是一个“弹性用户”。《交互设计之路》说“让用户满意是我们的目标，但是‘用户’一词会带来麻烦。由于它不够精确，不能用来设计，就像电锯不能用来切除阑尾一样，我们需要更精确的设计工具。”没错，不精确的用户定义将会带来无休止并且无意义的争论，因为这种争论根本对于设计无用。我们需要引入一个具有性格、富有情感、精确而又虚拟的“特定用户”，它就是“人物角色”。
人物角色有人会问，为什么我们需要人物角色，要具体的用户很简单啊，找到实际用户群，做深入访谈，或者用户调查也可以。实际上这种最显而易见的方法并没有多少效果，原因很多，最主要的就是用户也就是这些问题的受害者他本身并不知道自己想要什么，就算知道想要什么他也不知道该如何去解决。如果真的设计是这么简单的工作，还需要设计师干吗？因此，“人物角色”作为交互设计最有力的工具就显得异常重要。尽管这个角色是虚构的，但是它必须是符合真实代表现实用户的，自然是从调查访谈过程中提炼出来的。这种设计方法叫做“personas”。
以角色为中心的设计写到这里，突发奇想大胆的提出一个新的名词RCD（role center design），用来代替UCD，“用户”这个词已经被用滥了，就像“用户体验”一样。如果一个设计师口边整天挂着“用户”二字，含糊的说以用户为中心，从用户需求出发，却没法具体阐述的话，那确实应当好好学习一下了，要么就到幼儿园去骗小孩子吧
Personas的技巧Personas我是没有做过的，虽然一直很想尝试，所以这里的技巧根本不是自己的经验，只是将《交互设计之路》里的一些要点提出来综合自己的理解给大家做个参考：
1．
人物角色必须具体，给角色命名是成功定义一个角色的关键。所有项目成员应当将这个角色作为身边的真实地人来对待，要是条件允许，给他提供一个工位，并在他的工位上放上相框里面附着一张他的“照片”（这个照片当然是由设计这个角色的设计师提供），为了让这个人物角色深入人心。这样，项目内的人员就不会再把自己想象成用户，用户就不再富有弹性了。人物角色越具体，作为工具就越有效。
2．
人物角色不能是单一的，应当创建一个角色表。角色表里包含一般3-12个不同的角色。这里要注意的是并不是针对所有的角色进行设计，但是他们可以代表我们关注的人群，有些角色的存在甚至可以是作为我们不为这类人进行设计的参考。角色的创建一般在用户访谈调查的过程中进行的，没听到一个故事就可以创建一个人物角色，当听到的故事越多，重合的属性也就越多，这时候就可以将一些人物进行整合。最后可以形成角色表。
3．
必须建立明确的首要人物角色。在角色表的众多角色中，至少需要一个首要人物角色，他是设计服务的中心人物。一切的设计会围绕着他来做，比方说他叫DTE，那么这个设计只要让DTE满意，就能让其余的角色banlon、andy、stephen等满意。在确立首要人物的时候就尤为关键，错误的首要人物将会带来失败的设计。
ucdchina就有专门一期关于
角色设计的专题，每一篇都很好，自然比我这个小丑式的文章高明许多~呵呵，大家可以去那吸取更多的养分。
《交互设计之路》中的案例这个案例给我的启发很大，对于我理解书中前面提到的理论有很大的帮助，所以截取一些出来给大家分享，如果有这本书的朋友直接看第九章就好了。
这是一个为飞机上的娱乐系统做的设计。…..（这里省略n多字）….设计师们走访了大量的用户，通过精炼，压缩出10个人物角色：4个乘客和6个机务人员。机务人员有规范的岗位描述和职责，因而对他们做设计相对容易，所以首要人物角色肯定要在乘客中找，这4个乘客是：
Chuck 商务旅行人士。一位10万英里俱乐部的会员，几乎每周都飞往某地。Chuck的飞行经历意味着他既不会复杂、耗时的操作界面，也不能容忍面向初学者的操作界面。
Ethan 9岁男孩，第一次进行无人陪伴旅行。Ethan想玩游戏、游戏、更多的游戏。
Marie 双语商务旅行者。英语是她的第二语言，她喜欢浏览购物和娱乐部分的内容。
Clevis 一位脾气古怪的老人。他是虽然年迈但是仍有精神的德州人，手腕有关节炎，不太灵活，也是4个角色中唯一没有电脑也不会操作电脑的角色。设计的原则是要让4位乘客都满意，并且不能让其中任何一个不高兴。通过分析，发现针对Chuck、Ethan、Marie的任何一个方案在Clevis身上都不适用，他对Chuck喜爱的快捷方式以及Marie的语言选择感到恐惧和迷惑，Ethan的激烈游戏只会让Clevis感到不舒服。然而，如果在画面中的某处提供满足每个角色特殊需要的功能，Chuck、Marie和Ethan就完全可以接受让Clevis的高兴的方案。Chuck和Marie经常旅行，他们愿意也有能力自己应付各种系统，只要不需要过多的操作就不会惹恼他们。而Ethan只要能找到他想要玩的游戏，他就会很开心。所以，Clevis是项目的首要人物角色。我们为他来设计这个系统。
看到这里，我实在很诧异，如果没有使用这种设计方法，我死也想不到Clevis这样的糟老头所代表的一群人竟是设计的主要用户群。由此可见，这个方法是多么的可靠！
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最后，当角色渗入项目后，一种美妙的变化将会产生，文章开头的对话就会变成这样：
程序员：“Rose会想打印这个吗？”
设计师：“不，不过Jacob需要一个季度打印一次报告。”
程序员：“那好，既然他们很少打印，那我们节省一些时间和精力，去购买现成的商业打印程序许可，不要去编写花哨的打印功能了。”
经理：“太好了，我们的计划可以缩减两个星期了！”
记住，做好交互设计，找到你的用户！
译文:
Find your users, Make interactivity design better
Introduction
Before reading the article, have a look at this dialogue quoted from Page 124 in the book of “The Road of Interactivity Design”.
Programmer:” What if the customers want to print this?”
Manager:” We don’t think we need to add the printing function in the 1st version.”
Programmer:” But maybe someone wants it.”
Programmer:” Well, yes, but can’t we postpone the implementation?”
Manager couldn’t give abundant reasons to persuade Programmer, even though his decision that isn’t convincing is right. Because adidas tells us that impossible is nothing. It’s impossible to resist the “possible logic” of the programmer.
I think most people within this industry in brainstorming conferences or projects meeting encounter many conditions like the following.
A:” The customers maybe do it like this……”
B:” But I think they maybe do it like that……”
So, the attendances come into being two parties, and no side is persuaded after keen arguments. Why do the customers using the same product have different habits and interests? The answer is very simple. Because the customers they are talking about are just themselves.
What’s a customer?
To be brief, a customer is a product user. In fact, the concept is not as simple as this. ISO 9241-11 international standards give such a definition of usability: “Validity, efficiency and customers’ subjective satisfaction of the product offering the special users special functions in special environments. “ Since the users which are possible logic and stretch mentioned in the above dialogues aren’t special at all, I’ll emphasize the phrase “special user” here. It says in the book of “The road of Interactivity Design”, “Making the users satisfied is our goal, but the word of “user” could bring trouble and not used to design since its inaccuracy, just like the electric saw couldn’t be used to make an operation. We need more accurate design tools.” Right, inaccurate definition of “user” will give rise to the endless argument since this kind of argument is useless to design. We need to introduce a special user with features, feelings, accuracy and virtualization. That’s “character role”
Character Role
someone will question that why we need character roles, for it’s so simple to discover the concrete users by finding, talking and investigating. In fact, the most obvious method has little effects. The primary reason is that as the sufferer of these questions, the users don’t know what they want or how to solve. If real design is so easy, why are the designers needed? So, character role is very important as an important powerful tool for interactivity design. Even though this role is virtual, it must be refined by investigations and represent the actual users. This kind of design is called “personas”.
Role center design
A new noun “RCD” (Role Center Design) is put forward here to take place of “UCD”. The word “user” is used too much like “user experience”. If a designer who always mentions the users like “We should center on the users and start based on the users’ requirements.” can’t describe it in detail, then he should study more.
Personas skills
I haven’t experienced personas, even though I wish I did. The skills here are the combination of the views in the book “The Road of Interactivity Design” and my understanding to provide some help for others.
1. Make a character role concrete and Name him properly. That’s the key to define a character role successfully. All the members in a team should treat this role as a person in life. If possible, offer this role a table and put his picture provided by the designer on it to get a better understanding. Then, the developers won’t imagine themselves as the users, and the users are no longer stretch. The more concrete the character role is, the more effectively it works as a tool.
2. Create a role table with many character roles. Generally, there are 3 to 12 different roles in a role. Not all roles are needed to design, but they represent our interested people and acts as a reference for our design. Roles are created during the period of investigation. Every story can produce a character role. The more stories we get, the more attributes we should integrate. Then it’s time to integrate these characters and create a role table.
3. Determine the primary character role. At least a primary character role should be determined among these roles in the role table. He is the center of the design. For example, if the design could satisfy a primary character role named DTE, then it could satisfy other roles such as Banlon, Andy, and Stephen. Determining the primary character roles plays an important role in design and wrong primary characters will result in failed design.
Ucdchina has a special column about role design, where every article is good. Readers could learn more from there.
A Case in “The Road of Interactivity Design”
This case gives me great illumination and helps me understand the theories in the former part of this book. Here some content is abstracted to share with readers. You can read Chapter 9 directly if having this book.
The design is about an entertainment system aboard. …… (Some words are omitted here) The designers have visited a lot of users and concluded 10 character roles by refining- 4 passengers and 6 air crew. The design is much easier for there are clear post description and duty for the air crew. So the primary character role should be discovered among the 4 passengers. The following is the introduction of the 4 passengers.
Chuck: a business man and member of 100,000 km club. He flies to somewhere almost every week. His flight experience means he don’t like sophisticated and time-consuming manipulation interface, as well as the interface oriented the beginners.
Ethan: a nine-year-old boy. It’s his first flight without any companions. He wants to play more games.
Marie: a business traveler speaking English besides her native language. She likes browsing the shopping and entertainment pages.
Clevis: an odd old man. He is old but full of energy. His wrists are not very flexible because of the arthritis. He is the only person who doesn’t own and manipulate a computer among the 4 passengers.
The principle of the design is to satisfy these 4 passengers. By analyzing, any solutions which are fit for Chuck, Ethan and Marie are not the same with Cleivs. He feels scared and puzzled with the shortcut ways liked by Chuck and language selection liked by Marie, while Ethan’s keen games make him uncomfortable. Chuck and Marie often travel and have abilities to adapt themselve to any conditions. They will not feel angry if the manipulation is not too much. Ethan will be happy if there are some games he wants. So, Clevis is the primary character role in the project. We design the system for him.
When I looked at this, I was very surprised. I would never think this kind of people like Clevis is the main user without this design method. What a reliable method it is!
Finally, a wonderful change will take place when the roles are added to the project. The dialogue in the beginning of the article would be like the following.
Programmer:” Does Rose want to print this?”
Manager:” No, but Jacob need to print a report every quarter.”
Programmer:” OK. Since they print seldom, we can save some time and energy. We just need to buy the ready-made business printing program without implementing this funciton by ourseleves.”
Manager:” Great, our plan will be completed two weeks ealier.”
Remember to find your users and do interactivity design well!