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Great point! A focus on the essential - on the user's unchanging goals. That is a key to a successful software product - and also to satisfaction as a TW.
I go one step further though: The need is for a focus on the interrelationships between those goals - typically expressed as data flows.
The interrelationships are the lithmus test of how complete and comprehensive the goal analysis has been. This test is especially critical for larger scale software projects. Unfortunately few - very few - are aware of the need to focus on the interrelationships between user goals.
Generic Richard
Chris Borokowski <athloi -at- yahoo -dot- com> wrote:
Instead of designing the UI around the system's evolving internal
functions, the UI is instead designed around a discrete set of user
goals. The persona shapes the UI design, because at each stage in the
scenario you'd ask: "What would Alice do next?" or "How would she
respond to this?"
A common mistake is to define loads of personas, in the belief that
you're doing comprehensive behavioural analysis. In fact, the fewer the
personas the better, because then you'll end up with a more focused
system.
The first part of the article is muddled, but when it picks up steam it
makes a good point about how we think about the users we code for or
write for.
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