Gamification & Social Games (2/5) / Jon Radoff
Player personas are a means of gaining insight into customers.
Unlike more formal market research, which helps verify and evaluate factors we already know are important, customer interviews are for learning and exploring.
Opening questions should be 'what' and 'where' questions that can surface information about competitors, activity, and goals.
— What do you think about ___?
— Where do you usually buy ___?
— Where do you go to find ___?
— What's your level in FarmVille?
The most useful information you'll get from interviews at this stage will be what people are doing with competitors' products, and a few product names you've never heard of. But the best information you can gather is about 'motivation.'
In other words, an interview is not market research — we want to know what's not visible.
To surface motivation, you need many questions that start with 'why' and 'how.'
— Why don't you give gifts in FarmVille?
— What's your personal criterion for sharing achievements in the Facebook news feed?
— Why do you only log into Facebook during your lunch break?
— Why did you stop using the online diet site after just two weeks?
Remember: you're interviewing to learn, not to persuade.
A persona description should include the following
Demographics: age, gender, marital status, education, income, and geographic location of a typical customer — all have enormous impact on how you market the product.
Motivation: Do they use similar products? Why? What are their dreams and hopes? What do they want from our product? How do they feel about similar products?
Hero's Journey archetype: What character best describes the customer when they use our product? How does that compare to how they feel using an alternative product?
Online identity: How does the customer interact online? Do they prefer anonymity? How similar are their online/in-game identity and their real-life identity?
Complaints: What do they dislike about similar products?
Similar product use: When do they normally use similar products? Where do they usually buy and use them?
Media consumption: What websites, magazines, TV, and so on do they enjoy?
Daily routine: What do they do every day? Focus on activities related to your product.
9 persona pitfalls
Designing for users, not customers
Customers are the people who pay for the value we provide. Remembering that we serve customers — not just users — helps reinforce the idea that operations need to stay within the business model.
A player is a type of customer who expects fun and is ready to pay for it.
Not thinking about the business model early.
Just like having a clear vision, understanding the business model early can sharpen the product's focus. It's essential to keep focus on customers, how they perceive value, and when and how they're willing to pay for it.
The Henry Ford 'faster horse' fallacy.
Henry Ford said that if you asked customers what they wanted, they'd say a faster horse.
When you run interviews, customers often have plenty of their own ideas about how to solve the problem. The designer's job is not to dismiss those ideas as 'faster horses,' but to uncover the motivations behind them.
Poor focus on motivation.
In creating personas, we often focus too narrowly on the customer's goal. You have to also capture the motivation leading the customer to that goal — even when the goal itself isn't clear.
Motivation reveals why a goal matters, and can sometimes point to a different kind of goal the customer should focus on instead.
Personas designed by committee.
Committees tend to make personas without proper, concrete knowledge of the customer. The persona becomes an idealized view of the customer based more on wishes and fiction than on reality.
This usually comes from the absence of an appropriate vision.
Insufficient persona interaction.
Customers are humans, not ATMs. And designers, too, are humans with the ability to pick up subtle cues through interaction with customers.
Market-research data alone won't let you know customers accurately. Face-to-face conversation is the best approach.
Inadequate quantitative analysis.
Quantitative data about customers is extremely useful, but taking the risk is on the designer.
'Analysis paralysis' is a symptom of organizations where data becomes the ultimate self-defense strategy, punishing those who take risks. So some decisions can rely on qualitative data or intuition.
Lack of anti-personas.
No product can fit everyone. Identifying the customers you can't satisfy is as important as identifying the ones you can.
A product that tries to satisfy every possible type of customer becomes overly complex and has a confusing interface — and in the end satisfies no one.
Failing to consider experience.
Product designers often think of customer experience too narrowly.
Remember: it's not just surfacing information or graphic elements for interaction — it's the memory or change the customer goes through. Is there an experience you want to leave with them?
Failing to consider evolution.
Players change over time. People who started out matching one persona tend to resemble other personas after enough exposure to the game. Similarly, as a game evolves, the whole community can shift. Periodically revisit personas and examine some of the paths that lead players from one type to another.
Motivations to play social games
Evolution of social-game play motivations
Achievement → Competition / Achievement → Immersion / Achievement → Cooperation
Immersion → Cooperation / Immersion → Competition / Immersion → Achievement
You don't need to design a social game that satisfies all four types of social gamers. Many games fail because they try to do too much and lose sight of their original intent.
Ultimately, what determines a specific game's staying power is progress through new experiences.
MGT persona
1) Rosewater's MGT persona is based on three main types.
People who want fun — Timmy
Power gamer, social gamer, variety gamer, adrenaline gamer
People who want to express themselves — Johnny
Combo player, unconventional designer, deck artist, superior Johnny
People who want to prove something — Spike
Innovator, tuner, analyst, pragmatic player
2) Five refined categories
Power gamer Timmy
Enjoys winning but doesn't like fiddling with game mechanics. Prefers simple cards that don't require much deck-building.
Organizer Tommy
Likes spending time with friends.
Collector Tammy
Enjoys collecting cards. Breathless with joy at rare, old cards.
Tournament player Spike
Mainly interested in winning. Most likely to show up at tournaments to face other trained players.
Maestro Johnny
Enjoys building a stylish combo deck that expresses their creative genius.
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