Robotperson

I’m writing some personas for a project right now. Personas are made-up profiles of typical types of visitor who will use the site we’re redeveloping. Their purpose is to inform the architecture and design of the site – if you’re not meeting, for instance, Nupa’s needs (a GP from Harrow), you need to have a rethink. Giving your personas a believable background is an intuitive process. It just feels wrong to me for Robin to live in Walsall. No; Robin’s from Bournemouth.

In feeling out different locations for these personas it has amused me to find a certain place that, like tofu, takes on the flavour of whoever I choose to imagine to be there. Everybody seems to fit, it’s the catch-all, a joker to play when nowhere else seems to suit. That place is Milton Keynes.

Someone once told me that the reason Hello Kitty was so popular was because of her flat, featureless face. If Kitty was depicted smiling, unhappy children couldn’t identify with her. Her lack of expression allows everyone to sucessfully project their emotions, and find that Hello Kitty empathises; resonates with them.

Milton Keynes resonates with all my persona’s. It’s the blank face of England.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 12th, 2005 at 13:42 and is filed under Robotica. You can follow any responses to this entry through the
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