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Does your application have a personality? Does it portray a character or charisma when people use it? What is its charm? And why does this matter?

Personality is the “feel” component of “look & feel”. It is often overlooked, or at the very least, misunderstood. Your application will have a personality, with or without your input. It’s like a child. If you nurture it correctly, being conscious of the personality you are trying to instil into the application, then you may have some control on how it will end up, and how others will perceive it. But if you neglect it, work on simply writing the code, and getting screens out, you will either end up with a) an application with the personality you didn’t intend for (aggressive instead of passive for example), b) have absolutely no personality at all (dry, like black text on white screen) or worst of all c) a split personality, where sometimes your application is forgiving and at other times stringent and demanding. This just confuses your end user.

But before going any further, let’s look at a few examples. An application’s personality usually really presents itself when you attempt to login. Starting with Sales Force, the login screen is a large burly blacked suited personality, arms crossed, dark sunglasses and earpiece, very Secret Service like. Google’s login is a casual dress down affair, jeans, runners and a clipboard. Google greets me with a smile, but has a couple of big ex-footballers blocking my way unless I give the correct answer. Twitter on the other hand, is a tall lanky personality, a little overawed by its responsibility, giving me the impression that if twitter looks the other way, I may be able to sneak in.

Now your perception may not be the same as mine, but I think at the very least you can see where I am coming from (much like if I was to tell you that I think my sisters new boyfriend is a little too self-confident, you may not have experienced it yourself, but you could probably understand my view). Some of these organisations intentionally went for this persona; such as SalesForce that wants you to feel extremely safe with the information you are putting in, or Google that wants you to be welcomed, but at the same time keep the place secure. Others may not be intentionally portraying their persona, but just can’t help it because of where they are at in their maturity; Twitter is a good example of this, they have had a couple of breaches of security and seem to be toying with ideas of how to improve security, which makes them feel slightly vulnerable, but yet I am not overly concerned with that based on the information I am providing.

So whose responsibility is Personality?

Firstly, Product Managers overlook this trait too often. Product Managers need to provide the vision for the personality, they need to guide the designers and developers with the personality. The designers and developers are where the influencing actually occurs. The designer is the mother, and the developer is the father. The father (developer) is the stern, opinionated influence in the child’s life, teaching discipline, morals and rules. The mother (designer) is the more emotional one, making sure the child is polite, well dressed, and wipes its face with a wet hanky when appropriate. Between the two of them, you are moulding the personality.

Sticking with our login page example, when building your application, you need to think; do I want this page to look inviting, arms wide open presenting a hug and bring the customer in, or do I need this page to look like it is being policed by the secret service. Both are valid. If you are building the next twitter, then you are likely to want to be inviting, but if it is an online banking application, then you are going to want to have a sense of security, and the dark suit may come out. But be creative. For example, I am now seeing some banking applications using a personality of a mature female bank manager in a bright suit, giving me the sense of security my parents or grandparents give me, but also portraying their warmth and concern. This is as much marketing as it is product development, but it’s the way you make sure you target the right type of customer.

Designers do this through using colour, layout and whitespace, Producers use content and language (language being one of the most prevalent ways to portray personality), and developers use error messages, workflow, business rules and validation (allowing a user to enter “next week” for a date, versus “28/5/09″if you want to be friendlier).

Where to begin?

First thing to remember is that your new baby (product) will have a personality anyway, but you need to try and influence it as best as you can. As a product manager, start envisaging a personality for the whole application; friendly and inviting, or strict and unforgiving. Then drill into the details and start working with the designers. Describe the personality the login screen should have; how should it be portrayed, and how should the customer react to it.

A final thought

Finally, you need to consider your typical target customer when creating a personality. If you target market are corporate suits that are focussed on numbers and details, you are setting yourself up for failure if your application portrays a personality of an adolescent in torn jeans and sneakers talking street.

And look around you. See what is happening in the real world. Look at shops that seem to be targeting similar customers, what is their personality? And this is actually quite easy, as they usually do this through the type of people they employ and what they wear, you get to “feel” their personality almost instantly!

So what are your experiences with application personality? What other personalities or split personalities have you come across in applications?