What are Personas?
Personas are sketches of sample users that help designers plan products in user-centered ways. Research can be hard to understand. Numbers are not warm and fuzzy, for example. Turning research into an idealized person makes it digestible across the team. The final personal is like an anonymized, fictionalized version of your research.
Creating personas usually requires the following steps:
- start by determining the users
- perform research on a set of users
- develop generalizations and conclusions based on the research (surveys, focus groups, and/ or interviews)
- writing a set of stories about a set of mock people.
Working with personas helps the whole team create a shared focus, i.e. a tangible client. In the end, you will find that using personas will help your team surface latent ideas. Also, personas are a wonderful benchmarking tool that helps your team stay on track throughout the project.
What are the components of the Persona?
Personas are like a snapshot of an idealized person.
Personas vary considerably but always include:
- Start with some demographics like age, marital status, and education level. Your set of personas should touch all the key demographics your project hopes to affect.
- A description of the person’s interests and dislikes
- A photograph or drawing of the “person”
Personas should also include statements related to the project, like their feelings and behaviors about museums, for example. Include non-museum behaviors as needed, like leisure behaviors or attitudes towards technology.
How can I make the perfect Personas?
Personas are essential to user-centered work. Here are five tips to succeed in creating perfect personas:
- Turn research into characters: Each part of your persona should draw from research but don’t keep it dry. Imagine the person who makes up that data point.
- Short and Sweet is Key: Personas are sketches not finished portraits. These personas will help guide your work to ensure that they are easy to use by keeping them succinct.
- Feelings, ideas, and details: Good personas touch on motivations, pain points, and behaviors. But, the special details are what make stellar personas, such as categories like triggers, goals, wow factors, and/ or dreams.
- Stay objective: Personas need to be completely objective. Don’t draw on real people. Take care to avoid personal biases.
- Doll them up: Before sharing your personas with your team, create one-page, designed documents with photographs of the “person”. There are plenty of templates online. The designed persona will feel more concrete.