Reader Personas

[dviererbe]

Reader Personas

My girlfriend is a Game Designer and she often told me that she works out the Personas (like the target groups) that will play the games she designs.

I think this is a useful concept that can be applied to the Packaging Guide when reviewing it. To be fair, the diataxis framework already kind of does this by separating articles into the category tutorial, explanation, how-to and reference but I think this adds an extra layer of awareness to look out for during a review.

Tell me what you think! :)

Personas

This are the major personas (in my opinion) that will read the Packaging Guide

Newbie

A newbie that barely knows anything about Ubuntu packaging topics or has major knowledge gaps in some essential areas, but is in general interested in learning more and contributing.

For example:

• A User that noticed a typo or an error in a graphic and wants to report or even fix it themself.
• A User that wants to provide translations to a package.
• A Developer that has no prior Linux experience and wants to distribute an application to Ubuntu.

Ubuntu Packaging Beginner

A Linux Developer/System Admin who has general Linux experience, but has never touched an Ubuntu/Debian package. This Persona may not know even know about apt, but about other package managers.

For example:

• A Linux Developer that has developed a tool and wants to distribute it to Ubuntu.
• A Fedora package maintainer that wants to distribute an application also to Ubuntu.

Ubuntu Packaging Intermediate

An Ubuntu Maintainer that has some experience with Ubuntu packaging, but has not touched edge-cases, sometimes need to look up how to do common tasks and almost always needs to look up how to do advanced tasks.

For example:

• A relatively new Canonical employee who has to work on Ubuntu packages (like me).
• An Ubuntu community member with specific PackageSet permission to the Archive. (Can upload specific packages to the Archive.)

Ubuntu Packaging Expert

An Ubuntu Maintainer with extensive Ubuntu packaging experience who just needs Documentation as a reference to fresh up memories.

For example:

• An Ubuntu Core Developer
• An Archive Admin

Debian Maintainer

A Debian Maintainer who may have extensive Debian packaging experience, but is not familiar with the Debian/Ubuntu procedure/tooling differences and just wants to read them up.

[s-makin]

I like having personas! I find it makes it easier to tailor content if you know who you're tailoring it for. I think we can probably "package" newbie and beginner together as a single persona though - the term "newbie" may be an unwelcome label for some, and the gap between the newbie and the beginner is small.