Within this blog post I have including my understanding and creation of my User Personas, Empathy map and User Journey map.

User Personas

For my user personas I wanted to aim to create a range of users as my aim for the application is for it to be accessible for all ages with the consideration that Arthritis affect all ages from young to old and I would aim with my application to meet the needs all effect by this condition. I have completed User Personas in the past for previous projects but never really got the full understanding behind the use of them but Pauls content on then in previous weeks I have built up a strong more knowledgeable outlook on how to created these as well the importance behind presenting these. With this project I was determined to gather as much research into these before creating my own to fully in-depth myself into developing strong personas for my Health app project.

I decided to create my persons using Adobe Illustrator as this is a tool that I feel most comfortable using. I began with designing my personas from using my answers received from my questionnaires that I have discussed further in my IXD303: Idea generalisation and Arthritis Research blog post. I was able from here then to split the received answers into age categories youngest to oldest focus on the ages from 20 to 70. I also thought it would be best to have my personas showcase both female and male to not only show the differences in age but also their understanding and outlook of technology.

My personas included:

Jeanette from Bangor, aged 71 and is currently retired

  • Jeanette has sustains a broken shoulder, has Rheumatoid Arthritis and Osteoarthritis.
  • Jeanette uses her kindle at home to access Facebook but thats all the technology that she uses
  • She is frustrated with the health service at the moment as she doesn’t get to speak to her doctor as often as she would like
  • She struggles to provide the doctor with accurate details of pain and inflammation with her regular flare ups from the break between each appointment.

Lucy from Dublin, aged 23 and is student and part time worker

  • Lucy has Psoriatic Arthritis in most of her joints, has had 2 suction and 2 steroid injects to help with her knee pain
  • Lucy is an undergraduate student who regularly uses both her laptop and phone for this course
  • Her aims are to continue working and studying for as long as she can with her condition and to keep on top of flare ups and medication
  • She is anxious when speaking through with the doctor which tends for her to forget important points she wants to bring up in appointments. With a busy lifestyle Lucy regularly forgets to check up on upcoming appointment, booking appointments, receiving her blood results and booking blood appointments.

 

Jack from Belfast, aged 45 and is a construction worker

  • Jack has has sustained 2 broken wrists in both arms and several broken fingers. Due to these injuries he has recently been diagnosed with Rheumatoid arthritis in his fingers and also in shoulders and back occasionally which affects his job.
  • Jack is a frequent user of his phone during the day at the gym and work and checks through his phone once home from work.
  • Jack aims to continue to use the gym for his mental health and aims to note down any pains that he feels to show the doctors.
  • He has limited time to speak with his doctor during to his job, forgets to manage pain and book appoints.

Simon from Dublin, aged 55 and is student and part time worker

  • Simon has Rheumatoid Arthritis in his fingers, shoulders and knees.
  • Simon uses his desktop compute at work and has programmed shortcuts into his keyboard to help with his pain. He has basic mobile phone knowledge using this for calls mostly and doesn’t see the point of getting a smart phone if he can’t work it.
  • Simon wants to have more technology that supports his conditions
  • Simons pain points include not being able to use parts of a website with his keyboards to play games. It takes him some time to fill out forms and he wants a lot of time try to tap through navigation menus.

Empathy map

I have never created an empathy map prior to this project and has been an area that I have enjoy getting to create. I created an empathy map using figma to help create a collaborative visualisation to showcase what I know about a particular type of user. This gives a shared understanding. of the users needs and helps with decision making towards the problem I will be facing with my project aim.

The traditional empathy map is split into 4 quadrants:

  1. Says
  2. Thinks
  3. Does
  4. Feels

 

User journey 

User Journey Mapping is the process of creating a user journey through a visual story of the interactions with a brand or product. Creating this allows me to step into my users potential thoughts and feelings behind my digital product given me their perspective further showcasing their potential needs.

I created my User Journey Map using Figma creating the users potential:

  1. Actions
  2. Feelings
  3. Touch points
  4. Painpoints

 

To conclude this section I have created 4 user personas, an empathy map and a user journey map that demonstrates my understanding of my potential user(s). Creating these have allowed me to step into my users shoes and visualise what I would want for an application that is focused on those suffering from an arthritic condition. I feel more confident after creating these and allows me to move forward in my design and concept ideas for my project.

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