assignment 3

Personas

Angela Brogsdale

Capella University

Part A: Persona

The persona I am creating is Dinethia Robinson. Dinethia is a 20-year-old, who is in her third year of college at Lock Haven University. Dinethia is currently pursuing a general bachelor’s degree at Lock Haven University. She currently lives in the off-campus housing and shares an apartment her best friend Ashley. Dinethia is a frequent humanitarian and spends most of her time doing community activities for children in lower income neighborhoods. Dinethia is considered, by many, to be an introvert. She would rather spend her weekends in the apartment rather than out partying. She is a very laid-back individual with a great heart and hopes to become a Social Worker or Child Therapist.

Dinethia is an only child and comes from a middle-class family. Her family lives in a small town in middle Georgia. Her fascination for community service was fostered here in her youth. Dinethia was never one to be selfish with frivolous items, she always had an open heart and loves helping others. Dinethia isn’t concerned too much with the popular trends of modern society, rather following the beat of her own drum. She is a pretty level-headed individual, rarely losing her temper. She frequently does her research on any products or services before she purchases a new item.

Dinethia persona would fall under the user category. She is using a product, the website, to determine what she will order from the restaurant. Dinethia strongly believes that ordering online would help reduce any unnecessary time in calling due to the ease of the system. She also has the capability of checking her order accuracy before submittal.

Task Analysis – Human User Ordering a Meal in a Restaurant

Task Name: Ordering a Meal in a Restaurant
Activity Performed/By Whom	Materials, Tools, or Resources Used in Task
Step 1	Dinethia, Enter restaurant, ask for take out
Step 2	Hostess directs Dinethia to bar	Menu
Step 3	Bartender greets Dinethia and provides menu
Step 4	Bartender takes Dinethia order	POS system
Step 5	Send to back of house
Step 6	Cook Read/Prepare order	Food slip/kitchen appliances etc.
Step 7	Bartender brings food to Dinethia
Step 8	bartender Bring Dinethia’s check	Check folio
Step 9	Bartender Collect check and payment	Check folio
Step 10	Bartender Return to table with change or credit card receipt	Check folio
Step 11	Dinethia drives home with food	Check folio

Possible Task Flow – Human User Ordering a Meal Using an Online System

Task Name:
Activity Performed/By Whom (Human Role or Online System?)	Materials, Tools, or Resources Used in Task
Step 1	Dinethia-access website	Computer, phone
Step 2	Dinethia- access menu	Computer, phone
Step 3	Dinethia-add order to cart	Computer, phone
Step 4	Dinethia-checkout/review order.	Computer, phone
Step 5	Make payment/submit order	Computer, phone
Step 6	Cook receives/makes order/packs order	POS system
Step 7	Dinethia-enter restaurant/provides order #	Car
Step 8	Dinethia - wait for server to bring out food
Step 9	Server-bring Dinethia food	To-go containers
Step 10	Dinethia-leave restaurant	car

The biggest factor that separates the two components is less human interaction. This can vary by consumer technology knowledge. Some customers may prefer a human interaction over a computer. Also, less of an error ordering online as there may be an error with the server inputting the order.

Different personas from varying demographics would follow the same series of events. I know for this section we were to create and apply a different persona, but I instead chose to interview several of my coworkers. These individuals tend to range from their early 20s to late 50s. This sample group followed the same process as reflected in tables one and two when ordering food with the only variations being the food that they order. This consistency is caused by the individual knowing what they want to order, when they place the order. While the name of the restaurant may change, restaurants such as Frog Hollow have very similar menu items. Therefore, even if an individual has never eaten at that restaurant, they have a general idea of what they would want to eat when the decision is made to place the order.

Part C: Design Strategies

The human factor that I would like to take into consideration and focus on for the design of this website is that of memory and attention. The human brain categorizes memory in two forms, long/short term memory or working memory. Working memory is unstable and can only store so much info. If something were to grab an individual’s attention while they are performing a task, the working memory may be lost during the midst of this interaction.

This is an important consideration because the user may forget what they ordered or the running total of their order if they should become distracted. Distractions occur at any time and could occur from a simple interaction. They could be at a social gathering where there is a lot of background noise or the phone could ring in the other room while they are in the process of placing an order. Such distractions could cause the user to have to restart their order, or even duplicate their order without knowing.

To remedy this concern, a section of the screen will contain the current total and the items which are to be ordered. This partition of the ordering screen will be placed on the right-hand side of the application and will be visible on every page of the website. This will allow individuals to know what they have already place to order and what their total for the order is.