Personas represent users whose goals and characteristics reflect the needs of a larger group of users. The descriptions include behaviors, goals, skills, attitudes, and background information, as well as the environment. Designers will typically create fictional details to make the persona a realistic character. Deep understanding of a target audience is important to creating functional user experiences and products. Personas help find answers to the questions: for who and why you are designing this. With this information you can better understand the expectations and motivations of the users, creating a successful user experience and product.
A persona should include the following:
- Persona name
- Photo
- Role
- Quote/demographic
- Motivation & behavior – goals & journey
- Motivation, inhibitors and triggers
- Influencers
- Environment
- Similar personas
Personas need to then be associated with a scenario that describes how a user will interact with a product to achieve its end goal. The scenario will help designers understand the main user flows – by pairing the personas with the scenarios; designers gather requirements, and from those requirements, they create solutions. Scenarios should be written from the persona’s perspective, usually at a high level, and articulate use cases that will likely happen.
Personas are an important tool in making the design process about the user. They are part of the ideation process and assist the designers in achieving a good user experience. Personas help the designers be mindful of how the user will interact with every touch point and as a result deliver a high quality product. Personas are another tool to use in creating the best user experience possible.
Holly Checchia 