For Customer Experience Professionals

Assumption Personas Help Overcome Hurdles To Using Research-Based Design Personas

by Jonathan Browne, November 4, 2009

Forrester recommends that customer experience professionals use personas founded in ethnographic research to guide the design of products, channels, and messages. However, some organizations struggle to use personas effectively. To overcome common barriers . . .

For Customer Experience Professionals

Persona Best Practices Of Interactive Agencies

Forrester Applies Its Evaluation Methodology To Personas Provided By 18 Large Interactive Agencies

by Vidya L. Drego, August 27, 2009

Forrester applied its persona evaluation criteria to reference personas provided by 18 interactive agencies for the recent Forrester Wave™. Most of the personas showed some room for improvement, with problems running the gamut in both type and severity. . . .

For Customer Experience Professionals

Where To Find Help For Web Design Projects, 2009

North American Interactive Agencies Report Their Capacity, Budget, And Industry Capabilities

by Vidya L. Drego, May 8, 2009

Web site owners know that selecting the right Web design vendor can be a stressful and complicated endeavor. Budgets for design services are tight, but interactive design agencies are still selective about the projects they take on. To help kick-start . . .

For Customer Experience Professionals

Six User-Centered Design Best Practices

by Vidya L. Drego, February 17, 2009

In recent research, Forrester uncovered six best practices in the user-centered design process — for example, Medco links business objectives to customer goals, Wells Fargo uses scenario-starter exercises to gain early stakeholder buy-in, and KeyBank . . .

For Customer Experience Professionals

Low-Cost User Research And Usability Testing Techniques

by Vidya L. Drego, February 3, 2009

While customer experience efforts held up fairly well in 2008's slumping economy, many customer experience professionals can expect tighter budgets during the coming year. Luckily, user research and testing don't need to end up on the cutting room floor. . . .

For Customer Experience Professionals

Customer Experience Best Practices From 2008 Finance And Consumer Marketing Forums EMEA

by Jonathan Browne, February 3, 2009

In November 2008, Forrester held concurrent forums in London for consumer marketing and financial services professionals. Leading companies and their design agencies offered insight into their best customer experience practices. Mike Thompson of Barclays . . .

For Customer Experience Professionals

Quantitative Research Turns Staples' Personas Into Robust Decision-Making Tools

by Vidya L. Drego, January 7, 2009

After redesigning its Web site in 2002 with the help of personas, office-supply giant Staples wanted to see whether its personas were still valid, whether the site was meeting the needs of users, and what those users were doing after they left the site. . . .

For Customer Experience Professionals

Map User Goals To Business Objectives

Focus On The Right Customer Goals To Drive Business Success

by Megan Burns, December 18, 2008

Customer experience professionals spend much of their time thinking about how to help users accomplish their goals online. But it's equally important for them to think about how user success or failure affects business success. Why? Because doing so allows . . .

For Customer Experience Professionals

UI13: User Experience Misconceptions Debunked

by Vidya L. Drego, November 19, 2008

Forrester recently attended the UI13 Conference for customer experience professionals. At the conference, leading practitioners and researchers discussed the latest tools and techniques that help companies improve their design and customer experience. . . .

For Customer Experience Professionals

Wells Fargo Uses Ethnography To Improve Customer Communications

by Bruce D. Temkin, October 30, 2008

Wells Fargo sends a wide variety of communications, both online and offline, to its customers. To make sure that these communications are "customer friendly," the bank undertook a customer research study using ethnographic techniques. Customers who represented . . .

For Customer Experience Professionals

How To Get The Most From Design Personas

It's All About Process, Buy-In, And Solid Personas

by Vidya L. Drego, October 14, 2008

Spending for personas continues to increase, but companies don't use them regularly. Our research uncovered three drivers of persona success: a design process that explicitly incorporates personas, an appropriately developed persona, and organizational . . .

For Customer Experience Professionals

Design Persona Best Practices From Japan

Examining How Four Organizations Successfully Use Design Personas

by Jonathan Browne, September 16, 2008

Forrester decided to highlight four successful design persona initiatives within Japanese organizations that we found during our research. Hakubaku used personas to engage moms with its Web site. Fujitsu used personas to represent the children, teachers, . . .

For Customer Experience Professionals

Case Study: Iron Mountain Uses Personas For Marketing Success

by Vidya L. Drego, September 12, 2008

Iron Mountain's marketing team found that its product development priorities were driven more by advancements in technology than by customer challenges and pain points. To help remedy this — and therefore increase product differentiation and fit — visionary . . .

For Customer Experience Professionals

Molecular Brings Brand Personas To Life

Build Better Brand Experiences By Correlating Brand Attributes With Design Personas

by Ron Rogowski, September 8, 2008

Customer experience professionals struggle to create Web sites that support key brand attributes because their organizations often lack a shared definition of the brand. To fill the brand experience void, interactive agency Molecular has developed brand . . .

For Customer Experience Professionals

Thirteen Obstacles To Persona Success

by Jonathan Browne, August 29, 2008

Early adopters in Japan have started to use design personas across a range of applications including product design, marketing communications, HR strategy, and Web site design. To understand the challenges faced by Japanese companies that have used personas, . . .

For Customer Experience Professionals

Web Site Imagery That Builds Brands

by Ron Rogowski, August 27, 2008

Brand-building Web site imagery helps target users accomplish their goals while reinforcing key brand attributes. While many firms struggle to incorporate brand-building imagery on their sites, we uncovered several companies that successfully employ design . . .

For Customer Experience Professionals

Case Study: How Monster Puts UX At The Heart Of Its New Global Product Development Strategy

by Marta Baigorri, August 26, 2008

In the past eight years, Monster has expanded into more than 50 countries on four continents through an aggressive acquisition program. Even as Monster focused on platform integration, go-to-market strategies, and infrastructure, it neglected user experience . . .

For Customer Experience Professionals

Use Personas To Design For Engagement

Highlights From A Panel At Forrester's Marketing Forum 2008

by Vidya L. Drego, May 8, 2008

At Forrester's Marketing Forum, we held a session with three pairs of agencies and clients that have used personas very effectively. When QVC and Critical Mass redesigned the QVC Web site to create a community for frequent television shoppers, personas . . .

For Customer Experience Professionals

Questions For Persona Creation Vendors

What To Ask Before Selecting A Vendor To Help With Personas

by Moira Dorsey, February 4, 2008

Personas can help build more effective experiences. But customer experience professionals can't expect to get those results from any vendor they hire to research and create personas. That's why companies need to ask prospective vendors about how they . . .

For Customer Experience Professionals

Persona Reviewers' Guide (150 KB DOC)

by Harley Manning, December 17, 2007

A guide to reviewing personas using Forrester's Persona Review methodology.

For Customer Experience Professionals

Persona Project Costs And Deliverables

Small Firms And Interactive Agencies Report On The Number Of Personas Created, Interviews Conducted, And Costs

by Moira Dorsey, November 27, 2007

Surveys of user experience vendors uncovered 18 interactive agencies and 30 small firms with significant experience creating personas. The two groups report averaging four personas and roughly 20 interviews per client engagement in 2006. Project size . . .

For Customer Experience Professionals

Interactive Agencies That Can Help With Persona Projects

Eighteen Vendors With Significant Persona Creation Experience Report Research And Industry Expertise Details

by Moira Dorsey, November 14, 2007

A survey of interactive design agencies uncovered 18 firms that have significant experience creating personas and conducting persona research. The agencies are using diverse research methodologies to create personas for a variety of design purposes for . . .

For Customer Experience Professionals

Personas Drive Microsoft Dynamics UI Design

by Alan E. Webber, October 5, 2007

Microsoft Dynamics Global User Experience Group continues to push the development of better persona-based user interfaces and usability for its Dynamics product line. The team employs contextual analysis, usability labs, and desirability studies to develop . . .

For Customer Experience Professionals

Small Firms That Can Help With Persona Projects

Thirty-Three Vendors With Significant Persona Creation Experience Report Research And Industry Expertise Details

by Moira Dorsey, September 12, 2007

A survey of user experience vendors uncovered 33 firms with significant experience creating personas. As a group, these firms leveraged a variety of research methodologies, and their persona experience spanned industries, with a high concentration in . . .

For Customer Experience Professionals

How Personas Drive Experience-Based Differentiation: Four Examples

by Moira Dorsey, September 6, 2007

Personas help everyone with a stake in customer experience to obsess about customer needs. This healthy obsession is key for companies that want to differentiate the experiences they provide. A mutual fund company and its agency, Organic, used personas . . .