Jan 26, 2017
Lesson 3 & 4: User Personas
Lisa Bennette — Street parking app/site user
Age: 42
Location: Mississauga
Status: Married
Children: 2 (ages 8 & 12)
Occupation: Project Director/Fulltime
Salary: $80K
Hobbies/Activities: Running, yoga, gym, Soccer coach (kids play soccer), Home renovations, Dining out with friends, Foodie, Shopping (at street shops, not malls), Discovering new neighbourhoods in Toronto
Social Media: Facebook, Instagram. Her social media accounts are divided between photos of her family life (kids, husband, immediate family members) and social activities with her friends (mostly other women around her age) like dining experiences, music shows, street festivals and events like the Home Show.
Lives outside of the city (Mississauga), but will travel into Toronto for entertainment purposes about twice a month (mostly with friends or to meet friends).
Scenario
Lisa is meeting her friends Kim & Andrea for dinner at a hip new restaurant in Roncesvalles. It’s a Friday night. Lisa will be driving there by herself — her husband will be staying home with the kids. The plan to meet her friends was made last minute so Lisa will have to go there directly from her office in Mississauga.
She only travels into the city once or twice a month and she the area will be busy so parking directly on Roncesvalles will be hard to find.
She doesn’t really want to spend a lot of time driving around looking for parking.
User stories
As a user I want an app that will show me all the parking options that are available in an area of Toronto that I’m not familiar with.
As a user I want to know which neighbourhoods offer free street parking and how much time I have left to park there.
As a user I also want to know what paid parking options are available in that area just in case I can’t find a parking spot on the streets that were listed.
MVP: Minimum Viable Product
“A minimum viable product has just
those core features that allow the
product to be deployed, and no more.”
The bare bones of the product (website/app/service) that are just enough to get it out for beta testing (see difference between alpha & beta testing here: https://www.centercode.com/blog/2011/01/alpha-vs-beta-testing/)
Avoid Scope Creep and Feature Bloat
Scope Creep: changes, continuous or uncontrolled growth in a project’s scope, at any point after the project commences. This can occur when the scope of a project is not properly defined, documented, or controlled. It is generally considered harmful.
Feature Bloat: too many extraneous and unnecessary features that might take away from the simplicity and ease-of-use of your product. Keep your focus on the end goal of the user — stay on target!
