User Persona Research
for SAS Visual Scenario Designer & SAS Visual Investigator
User research is the foundation of good design. By discovering a user's needs, wants, and struggles, designers can tailor products to provide the best experience. As a part of the Fraud design team, I conducted user research via interviews for the SAS Visual Scenario Designer (VSD) & SAS Visual Investigator (VI) products.
User personas are fictional characters based on real users that represent the different ways a product is used. Ideally, they create empathy toward users while providing useful information about a product's flaws or desired functions.
In my research, I first outlined my major goals: learning how the products are being used, who is using them, what their workflows, roles, & responsibilities are, and what the user's pain points are. Both SAS VSD & VI are analytics-based products that enable users to investigate potential fraud and manage scenarios, so finding pain points to address in future designs was key.
the interviewees
Michelle Bergeron
Sr Product Manager
Joe Carina
Sr Product Manager
Susan Trueman
Sr Product Manager
Jen Dunham
Principal Solutions Architect
Suzanne Gibson
Development Tester
My team suggested the first interviewees, and the rest were based on suggestions from the managers and users I interviewed. Each interview was recorded and transcribed. I looked for repeated themes, problems, and solutions that pointed to common workflows and pain points in the products. I looked for the meaning behind the user's anecdotes, like what drove them to make decisions and how different incidents impacted the their interactions.
I created three personas that encompassed the general stories I encountered in the interviews. Showing different experiences with each persona represents the diversity of users and helps convey the different emotions of their experiences, making sure that the user's needs take priority in the design and development process.
overview of the personas