Mental Models

I want to emphasize that mental model diagrams don’t represent the tools or media a person is using. You’re not interested in separating a task about “Tell my boss I finished the project” into “by telephone,” “by email,” or “in person.” You only need to record the root task. Try to be tool agnostic.

Try to rely on your audience segments themselves for the greatest distinctions. For example, a company I worked with was sure there was a difference in the way people interacted with Human Resources based on their level of experience with the web. I pointed out that web experience had nothing to do with finding out your vacation balance, so we drop

To create a mental model, you talk to people about what they’re doing, look for patterns, and organize those patterns from the bottom up into a model.

mature dating goal.

The project leader should also interview stakeholders about the organization’s mission, long-term strategies, objectives, predictions, perceived challenges, places where things didn’t go well in the past, strengths and weaknesses of the internal structure, and who the decision-makers are. Record the interviews. Look for patterns in what various bus

So my first rule about interviewing was to concentrate on what the person is trying to do and not on the product itself.

The verb+noun phrases all need to be in present tense. No gerunds — they just complicate things. “Targeting” should be “target.” “Convincing” should be “convince.” Also, use the first person, to preserve the immediacy of the tasks.

Understanding the differences among the mental spaces of your audience segments will bring clarity to your design.

A mental model for a particular topic is, in essence, an affinity diagram of user behaviors.