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The role of learning styles and personality profiling in usability

Understanding how to communicate most effectively AND then insuring your success through testing

What this skillset is:

Understanding the Learning Style and or Personality Profile of our users allows us to:

• Speak in the language they understand best.
• Motivate them to actions which support our agenda
• Deliver information in a manner which insures the highest retention
• Builds loyalty, repeat visits, referrals, conversions,
• Conveys instructions in a manner which reduces problems and tech support

When do we use these tools

Currently anytime we have a subset of the entire internet audience. The goal is to profile and identify them in a manner which allows us take advantage of this skill set.

When do we NOT use these tools.

When we know so little about our audience, or it is the entire internet audience, that focusing on a particular profile or learning style risks alienating significant members of the audience.

What do we do if this is our intended audience?

Outside the scope of this presentation but briefly there is reams of information on how to speak to the audience at large and this has been the focus of usability for years.

Why should we learn them

First they work significantly better then what we are doing now.

Second we are rapidly coming to a place (some say we are there) where we will be able to passively determine learning styles or personality profiles based upon choices and history of clients behavior on a web site.

One example of customers using this fairly crude behavioral targeting.

Amazon. "People who liked this book, also liked .."

eMail lists focused upon past behaviors as predictors of future behaviors.

In the near future, I predict that dynamic sites will be built on the fly for customers based upon, not only past behaviors (i.e., Amazon) but using indicators that speak to personality and learning styles. Why, because content that speaks the correct language wins.

Let talk first about Personality profiling.

Developer's Meyers Briggs info.

Most common developer combo is ISTJ.

• Introverts are more interested in the inner world of ideas.
• This category refers to how a person prefers to receive decision-making data. The sensing person focuses on known facts, concrete data, and experience.
• This category refers to a person's decision-making style. The thinker makes decisions based on objective analysis and logic
• the judging person prefers order and control.

Here is the information profile we developed using our Profiling research tools.

After testing an assortment of developers for their learning styles. We discovered that.

Multiple Intelligence Test.

The largest % of developers have a dominant strength in Mathematics and Logical thinking. Secondly you have a dominance in intrapersonal intelligence rather then interpersonal;

Here are the summaries. I have tried to be brief, hopefully not to the point of worthlessness. This is not a scientific study so I ask that you please not share it as it would be a bit embarrassing to anyone used to formal and full blown studies of this type.

Logical/Mathematical Learner

•  likes to: do experiments, figure things out, work with numbers, ask questions and explore patterns and relationships.

•  is good at: math, reasoning, logic and problem solving.

•  learns best by: categorizing, classifying and working with abstract patterns/relationships.

Intrapersonal Learner

•  likes to: work alone and pursue own interests.

•  is good at: understanding self, focusing inward on feelings/dreams, following instincts, pursuing interests/goals and being original.

•  learns best by: working alone, individualized projects, self-paced instruction and having own space.

"Theory of Multiple Intelligences," suggesting that individuals perceive the world in at least eight different and equally important ways-

linguistic,

logical-mathematical,

musical,

spatial,

bodily- kinesthetic,

naturalist,

interpersonal, and

intrapersonal--

Excluding technicians from decision-making. Technical people's distress at being left out of major decisions is about more than just feeling out of the loop. They often sense that their talents have been disregarded. They have been insulted. And, since many decisions are influenced by technical considerations, they also feel that the decisions themselves could be suspect, since managers' technical knowledge is rarely respected. Any of these interpretations would qualify as demotivating.

Inconsistency. People who are drawn to careers in technology typically have a strong need for consistency and predictability. Early interactions with computers are quite comforting for them. As youngsters, they draw conclusions about computers, their parents and themselves. "If I type in this command, the computer always does the same thing. That's cool. I wish my mom was that predictable."

Next thing you know, they're programmers. When managers are inconsistent, at best they create distractions, and at worst they encourage their people to feel insecure. Neither result is particularly motivating.

Excessive monitoring. Among technical groups, there are few bigger insults than to call someone a micromanager. The feeling of being micromanaged is profoundly demotivating. Monitoring someone excessively, intentionally or not, communicates distrust for the person being overseen. And in many kinds of technical work, it can also serve as an impediment to progress. In intellectually demanding, creative work, interruptions can disrupt thinking for long periods of time. A manager's one-minute drop-by can result in hours of lost productivity regaining the concentration lost.

So if you want a truly motivated team, one of the best things you can do is to make sure that you're not a demotivational leader. As it turns out, not having a negative effect on your team can be a huge positive.

Testing for Success.

Once we have built the profile and understand the communication style, we go on the architect the site however the final step is to always confirm by testing for communication effectiveness through face to face testing. Please contact me if you would like more detailed instructions on how to test for success in this new area.

This article is free for reprint however you choose as long as you request permission, provide a link to this site and acknowledge ownership. If you need more information or wish to discuss any aspect of this policy or the article please feel free to email me. - Thanks, Todd

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