learnability matters

How it is typically done……

IDs go through the content dump and a set of requirements from the clients. Most of these requirements are based on what the client wants to see in the course. The IDs then sit down to design strategies based on the content and the client’s likes or dislikes. In the process, the learner is left in the lurch trying to figure out what they have to learn when they go through the course.

How it ought to be done……

IDs acquire information about learners through either direct interaction or secondary sources or both. Direct interaction involves observing learner behavior, studying their activities and interviewing them to gather information about their wants and learning needs. When the learners are not accessible, secondary sources, such as official websites of the organization for which they work,, forums related to their field of work, and so on, are used to compile the learner profile . Consequently, IDs create a learner persona that acts as their Pole star while designing the course.

What is a persona?

Persona is the description of a person for whom the program is being designed. For our eLearning courses, a persona is our archetypical learner. According to Alan Cooper, ‘Personas are a precise description of our user and what he wishes to accomplish.’ Personas are created based on the learner profiles defined during the learner observation. Personas are typically hypothetical and fictional. Alan Cooper in his book, ‘The Inmates Are Running the Asylum’, speaks about the elastic user. This is a really hilarious concept. He describes the needs of several users and designs one car catering to all these needs. The car ends up looking like a cross between several cars. Therefore, the user has to adjust to the design of the car by selecting the feature that he/she wanted and ignoring the others. He called this user the elastic user. Therefore, the elastic user bends and stretches according to the design. However, in reality, the program should be designed to accommodate the user and not the other way round!

Today, most of the eLearning is designed for these “elastic users or learners”. How often have you seen courses where the learners have to sift through a whole lot of information that he/she may never apply before finally finding something that he/she needs? How often have you come across courses that have numerous features only to realize that the learners may never ever use them?

Creating a persona helps eliminate this problem of “elastic user or learner”. When you create a persona, you design for that persona – that particular learner. Persona creation helps IDs focus on the needs and wants of this learner. Everyone designs with this learner in mind. Everyone starts thinking for this learner – Will my learner need to bookmark his module? Does my learner already know this information? Can my learner relate to the scenario in the course? Can my learner understand the language used? Can my learner click the radio button easily?

Ultimately, you will realize that your program is geared towards one goal – it is designed exclusively for your learners.

Before we proceed, let us see a sample persona.

Persona 1
	Mike Wilkins
Geographic Profile
Age	27
Gender	Male
Family size	1-2
Marital Status	Single
Income	Mike earns in the range $10,000-20,000
Housing Type	Mike lives in a rented apartment.
Occupation	Drilling Supervisor
Role in Exxon	Mike is a fresh recruit. He has joined as a drilling supervisor. He has a team of drilling engineers working under him.
Education	Bachelors in Chemical Engineering
Race	White American
Nationality	American
Psychographics
Social Class	Working class
Social Group Status	Mike is part of the crowd. His behavior is governed by the crowd he is with.
Personality and Self-image	Mike likes to spend time with other people.
Beliefs	He is ambitious. He believes that hard work is the key to success.
Attitude	Mike is curious to learn more and gather information that will help him in his workplace. He is eager to do well and succeed.
Attitude to Change	Mike is person of average intelligence. He has a practical approach to change. He adopts change if it is logical and he can see benefits in adopting them.
Lifestyle motivations	Mike is status-oriented. He seeks the approval of those above him.
Interests	Mike likes computer games and play stations.
Media read, watched	Mike enjoys watching comedies. He is not too fond of books.
Webographics
Computer usage	He can access the office intranet. Typically, he spends an hour per day at the computer in office.
Internet usage	Mike uses the Internet at home to check his emails. He surfs websites occasionally.
Goals
Career Goals	Mike aims to excel in his field of work. He wishes to get a promotion soon and rise in the ranks.
Emotional goals	Mike is close to his team. He takes care of his team’s needs.
“Big picture” goals	Mike wants to shine at work. He is motivated to be in a better position (or similar) as other supervisors.
Motivations	Mike will take the e-learning course because it will take him closer to his career goal.
Frustrations	Work hazards are a reason for frustration. Also, inadequate knowledge of safety procedure increases Mike’s frustration.
Attitude to job/task	Mike is committed to perform. He has to do his tasks.
Anxious about	Mike is anxious about underperforming because of lack of knowledge. He wants to know more to be able to guide his team better.
Trigger(s) for action	Mike follows rules and procedures to avoid disciplinary action and any kind of negative attention.
Context
Mike’s responsibilities	He works as part of a Drill Team with engineering staff and materials and contracting personnel to implement the well design. He organizes and prioritizes well site activities, and may have to travel to well sites to supervise work being conducted.
Mike’s learning environment	Mike takes the course in a workstation. He may have others taking the same course around him. However, he is not distracted by people around him.Mike may have to take time out of his daily schedule to take this course. Often his team members come to him with queries while he is taking the course. He may have to respond to them and resume with his course.
Mike’s expectations from the course	Wants to know more about his work to guide his team better Wants a fun and engaging course Does not want to read information and remember definitions

How does this persona help you design a course on Managing Performance Issues? Does it make a difference? Yes, it does. You need not imagine a nameless faceless character at a remote location as your learner. Your learner is right before you – he is alive now!

In the above persona, some information may seem irrelevant, but you would be surprised how they help you design at a later stage. For example, you know that Mike is not much of a reader nor does he remember definitions. Mike enjoys playing computer games and follows rules. You can use this information to your advantage. You design a course that is more visual than textual. You have small game elements in it to hold Mike’s interests. You also know that Mike is motivated by the desire to guide his team better. If you give him this information, I bet he will sit through the entire course highly motivated. On the other hand, if you design a highly textual scenario-based course, where Mike needs to read through numerous scenarios and learn, I can safely bet that he will quit even before he reaches the halfway mark.

Let us look at another persona.

Persona 1
	S. Uma
Geographic Profile
Age	25
Gender	Female
Marital Status	Married
Income	Earns in the range Rs 8,000 (plus upto Rs 30,000 as bonus every 3 months)
Occupation	Customer Relations Executive
Role in the Organization	Follow up pending orders, call customers about offers, taking customer calls, interacting with customers, advertising methods (looking for hoardings)
Education	Has done her MBA
Language familiarity	Uma can read and write Tamil fluently and can manage English conversation with her customers. (Her English capability is very basic.)
Nationality	Indian, lives in Chennai
Psychographics
Dress	She likes wearing salwar kameez to work. She loves to wear a neat payal, some bangles and a bindi everyday. During festivals, she wears lots of flowers on her hair and several bangles and a gold necklace. She does not wear lipstick or facial makeup. She does wear a hint of kajal.Her hair is curly and very difficult to manage. This always gives her a messy look. She applies oil to make it stay.
Social Class	Working class
Social Group Status	She is a team player. She works with the team, shares workload and discusses personal issues with them.
Personality and Self-image	Uma likes to spend time with other people; she likes being called a star seller. She feels she is smart and is proud of her customer-handling skills.
Beliefs	She is ambitious. She is also sincere and hard working. She strives hard to meet her daily and monthly targets. She is highly motivated by the new bonus scheme in her shop floor. Although she likes looking good, she believes in paying more attention to selling than on her appearance. Uniform reminds her of her school days.
Attitude	Uma is religious and is strongly influenced by her culture. She is proactive in helping customers and very patient with them.
Attitude to Change	Uma is a person of average intelligence. While she is eager to learn more and gather information that will help her in her workplace, she is hesitant to adopt things that conflict with her cultural values.
Lifestyle motivations	Uma is inspired by her store chief. She would perform well to look good in front of him.
Webographics
Computer usage	Uma enters data on the office computer, she also updates sales orders, follows-up orders, and checks the inventory on the computer. She also checks her emails once a day either in the morning or when there are no walk-in customers.
Internet usage	She uses the internet to check mails from the head office. She does not browse the net nor is she computer savvy.
Goals
Career Goals	Uma wants to be a star sales person. She wants to gather experience as a sales person and use her MBA to excel in her career.
Emotional goals	Uma wants to prove herself. She is also very particular about maintaining the home-work balance.
“Big picture” goals	Uma wants to shine at work. She is motivated to earn more bonus on meeting and exceeding her sales targets.
Motivations	She wants to undergo any training that will teach her/help her sell better.
Frustrations	She is frustrated by the back-end operations of the store. She promises deliveries to customers but the deliveries are invariably delayed. She loses face before the customers.
Attitude to job/task	Uma is committed to perform her job well. She does not mind working long hours as long as she is happy that she is doing her job well.
Anxious about	Uma is anxious about looking bad before her store chief and supervisors. She is also anxious about not meeting her sales targets.
Trigger(s) for action	Uma follows the rules and regulations of the company and takes tips from her supervisors about how to handle customers well.
Context
Uma’s responsibilities	Overall tasks: Pending orders, follow-ups, taking customer calls, interacting with customersBreak-up of tasks:Morning: Handles bank/cash transactions11:00 onwards: Handle customersFree time: Data entry and logistics updation, installation and follow-up, train new joinees, make them shadow/follow them so that in two months they are ready to handle customers on their own
Uma’s learning environment	Uma had attended training in products knowledge, sales and customer service at the Mumbai office when she joined the organization. Since then she has not undergone any official training. All the updates happen through emails or by their store chiefs.Uma may be able to take 10 minutes out of her daily schedule to take this course. She may do this during the lunch or tea break. She may not be able to spend more time on this as her first priority is to attend to customers.
Uma’s expectations from the course	Should give her all the tips to sell more and sell better. Should not take too much of her time. She should be able to see the benefits quickly. Should not challenge her cultural beliefs

As you can see, Uma, is a real person now. We know her role in the organization, her aspirations, her background, and her cultural values. Persona creation beautifully capturers the subtle cultural diversities that we need to keep in mind while creating a training program. In Uma’s case, we know the following:

• Uma has to learn in a language that is incredibly simple or she will preferably learn in her own mother tongue
• Uma can devote only 10-15 mins per day to training as attending to her customer is her priority
• She needs quick tips and guidelines to apply the learning at her workspace
• The course interface has to be simple and extremely user friendly as Uma is new to eLearning and not very familiar with computers
• The course should have information available upfront as Uma does not have the time to sieve through the screens to find what she is looking for
• Uma needs to be familiar with the situations and characters used in the program; she should be able to relate to them to learn better
• We need to ensure that any behavioral changes that we suggest should not challenge her cultural beliefs; and if they do then there should be sufficient logic for her to buy this

Personas depict the patterns of learner behaviour. Personas help the design team (instructional designers, graphic designer, visual designers, programmers, and all those involved in the development of the training program) understand who the course is being created for. At every point, the design team can check whether they are meeting the learner’s requirements. At any point, the designer can pause and reflect – “Can Uma understand this?” or “Will Mike need this information?”

Personas negate ambiguity, misconceptions about what is required, and the assumptions made by the designers. It helps designers focus on the learner’s goals. It ensures that every one is on the same page about the learner requirements. The designer cannot design what he or she thinks is cool. The designer needs to design based on whether Uma or Mike will ‘get it’ or ‘like it’ or ‘learn from it’. Similarly, several design decisions (instructional and graphical) are influenced by the persona. These design decisions are extremely effective as they are focused and close to being flawless.

Let us quickly summarize the advantages of creating a persona.

• Persona helps the development team refer to a focused data set about a known learner rather than an abstract set of data about unknown learners.
• Development team gains a shared understanding of the requirements and the context within which learning will take place.
• For the development team, the learner is now a real person with a face, personality, needs, and wants.
• Persona provides a better focus that helps arrive at design solutions.
• The development team can continuously evaluate against the persona to ensure that the learner’s needs are being met at all times.

Personas are powerful tools when used correctly can result in an effective training program. Personas eliminate chances of subjectivity (such as designer’s creative fancy or clients’ likes and dislikes) that may often creep into the design. Personas help maintain objectivity in design and execution so that the course meets learner’s needs, wants and requirements at all times.

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