Nielsen Norman Group: usability consulting, training & user research reports

Jesse James Garrett: experience design and information architecture resources Boxes and Arrows: The design behind the design Personas Whew. That was close. As every year, there’s a risk that we’ll be overrun with with zombies, werewolves, vampires, sasquatch(es), and mummies before the veil that separates the world seals tight for another year. Monsters are extreme personas One of the power of personas is that they encourage designers to be more extrospective, to stop designing for themselves. But then again… Some of the constraints of the monsters are human constraints writ large (or writ strangely). Juan wasn’t a useful person in and of himself, but his users exercised flash mob requirements of real-time activation and coordination. So maybe they’re great personas after all, guiding us to great design because they’re extreme, just like the canonical OXO Good Grips story, where designing for people with arthritis led the design teams to create products with universal appeal.

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