User personas and their applications in user specific home pages, case Granlund Manager
Kivistö, Mira (2024)
2024
Master's Programme in Human-Technology Interaction
Informaatioteknologian ja viestinnän tiedekunta - Faculty of Information Technology and Communication Sciences
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Hyväksymispäivämäärä
2024-05-24
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-202405065379
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-202405065379
Tiivistelmä
This thesis is focused on user personas created based on the users in Granlund Manager. Granlund Manager is a web-based software as a service that is the most used facility management software in Finland with over 700 customer organizations and over 40 000 facilities. Granlund Manager consists of different functionalities that may operate either independently or have crossover with other functions. (Granlund Ltd., 2023)
To better know the wide variety of the Granlund Manager users, user research was conducted for being able to create personas based on the Granlund Manager users. Personas are fictional characters that are created upon research to represent large groups of users that might use the service or the product (Dam and Siang, 2024; Cooper et al., 2014). With the personas it is possible to present behaviors, attitudes, aptitudes, motivations, and goals of the large user groups in more adaptable form (Cooper et al., 2014; Nielsen, 2014; Gudjónsdóttir, 2010)
The user research about the Granlund Manager users was conducted as web questionnaire survey. The survey was open from November to December in 2023. The total amount of participants in the survey was 104 Granlund Manager users. Based on these participants, three major user role-based groups were identified. These three groups are maintenance workers, property managers and customer support specialists. User personas were made to match each of the group, i.e. one persona for maintenance workers, one persona for property managers and one persona for customer support specialists. The personas created based on the user research were quantitative, role-based user personas.
Based on the personas, user specific homepages were created. The choices in these new homepages were primarily made based on the wants and needs presented in the personas. In addition to the persona-based rationalizations in the homepages, there were additions that were applicable to all the personas based on the data from the survey. Among the usage as a design tool, these personas may be beneficial as a communication tool for Granlund Manager’s stakeholders.
To better know the wide variety of the Granlund Manager users, user research was conducted for being able to create personas based on the Granlund Manager users. Personas are fictional characters that are created upon research to represent large groups of users that might use the service or the product (Dam and Siang, 2024; Cooper et al., 2014). With the personas it is possible to present behaviors, attitudes, aptitudes, motivations, and goals of the large user groups in more adaptable form (Cooper et al., 2014; Nielsen, 2014; Gudjónsdóttir, 2010)
The user research about the Granlund Manager users was conducted as web questionnaire survey. The survey was open from November to December in 2023. The total amount of participants in the survey was 104 Granlund Manager users. Based on these participants, three major user role-based groups were identified. These three groups are maintenance workers, property managers and customer support specialists. User personas were made to match each of the group, i.e. one persona for maintenance workers, one persona for property managers and one persona for customer support specialists. The personas created based on the user research were quantitative, role-based user personas.
Based on the personas, user specific homepages were created. The choices in these new homepages were primarily made based on the wants and needs presented in the personas. In addition to the persona-based rationalizations in the homepages, there were additions that were applicable to all the personas based on the data from the survey. Among the usage as a design tool, these personas may be beneficial as a communication tool for Granlund Manager’s stakeholders.