People often talk about the users’ needs, but less frequently discuss the users’ hidden desires or skills. Unfortunately, a product aimed at users’ needs without an understanding of the users’ desires or skills can lead to a product that doesn’t work for its users.
If you think about it, a product's interface is much more than the UI. It's every part the user experiences, including:
- Look and feel
- Performance and speed
- Actions and behaviors
- Content
By focusing only on the features necessary to perform particular functions, products can become too technical or too dumbed down for the users (Microsoft Bob), they might not address some of the users’ less obvious needs (size reportedly killed Apple's Newton), or they may confuse the user with an odd mix of too much and too little feature support. While Bob and the Newton were Hindenburg-like failures, just think of the last product that frustrated the heck out of you. It simply wasn’t well matched for your needs, desires and skills.
Personas are a relatively inexpensive means of communicating the archetypal user's needs, skills and desires to the development staff. Consider taking the time to develop (or hire someone to develop) really good personas to support your current development efforts and increase your odds of building great and successful products.
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