de niro and user design
11/17/2006 07:15:00 PM 
He's encouraging fellow developers to take a look at what they can learn from Robert De Niro.
"You may have heard of "method acting", and how Robert DeNiro spent several months on the streets of Manhattan in a cab to prepare for his role in the movie Taxi Driver. He did this to understand the life of a taxi driver, so for movie-goers, the character felt realistic. He didn't get advice from the drivers on how to act the role, he simply observed and eventually "became" a taxi driver, enabling him to empathize and see the world from their unique perspective."
He recommends that the lead designer on a project assumes the role of lead persona (an archetype of the core target) and that other personas are spread out across the team if needed. Zif also suggests that these personas are used in meetings, with team members playing their persona roles to help imagine what the experience will be like for the user.
"At your design meetings, the actors consider how decisions will affect their particular character. Questions for the persona can be directed straight to the actor. This process can become fun and enable better teamwork, depending on how enthusiastically your actors embrace The Method."
It's a really interesting idea and probably has applications above and beyond web design. It could be a really useful tool for convergence planners.
Influx has also heard of companies using personas and method acting with internal teams to generate new product development ideas, as an alternative to focus groups.
More background on the origin of personas can be found here.
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