#Persona meaning how to
#Persona meaning software

Persona creation is best done as a team, not because it is difficult, but because it will garner more support for the use of personas from team members able to contribute to the process. (Keep in mind that any self-reported data, such as that resulting from focus groups and surveys, is possibly misleading and should be verified through other methods.) Once user research has been completed, personas and scenarios can then be derived from that data. Field studies, surveys, longitudinal studies, interviews, and other methods of user research should be conducted first to define characteristics of typical users. Ideally, the persona-creation process should be a part of the research phase for a product or feature, before the actual design process starts. Design for somebody who doesnвЂ™t exist and youвЂ™ll have no customers.) (Imaginary-friend personas that you dream up without any basis in the real world may describe the users you hope to get but will not reflect the way people actually are. Personas are made-up people, but they should be made up based on information about real people. Of course, personas must be based on user research in order to be at all accurate and representative of actual users of a product. вЂњAs early as possibleвЂќ is the best guideline for when to create personas. It thus creates a narrative that is much more digestible and memorable, which in turn increases the likelihood of continued use throughout the design phase and beyond. In contrast, a persona is a singular user derived from these data ranges to highlight specific details and important features of the group. These statistics are too impersonal, and are difficult to keep in mind when designing. When discussing broad categories of users, ranges must be used in order to summarize attributes of the entire group.

Personas Are Not User GroupsДefining user groups or market segments is not the same as creating personas. Example of a persona, targeted at helping design the About and Careers content for a company website.

But if users are described in statistical terms and as broad profiles, that information will simply not lodge itself as deeply in team membersвЂ™ brains as a distinct persona will. We need all product-team members to empathize with users and be willing to go the extra step to develop something that will work for the actual users. Personas work because designers and developers have the same tendency as all other people to be captivated more by concrete instances than by abstractions and generalizations. It is likely that a business will have several personas to cover the various aspects of their organization, with one or two of them identified as the main targets for each product or service, feature set, or content area of a website. A persona doesnвЂ™t need to document every aspect of the imaginary individualвЂ™s life, but rather should focus on those characteristics that impact what is being designed. This focus on a singular individual-or a small set of individuals, if using multiple personas-fosters empathy for the specific users we are designing for, and helps us break away from the attempt to design for everyone. The description should be thorough, including details about the personaвЂ™s needs, concerns, and goals, as well as background information such as age, gender, behaviors, and occupation. A persona is an archetype instead of an actual living human, but personas should be described as if they were real people. Personas are yet another tool that can be used to encourage decisions based on a real personвЂ™s needs, and not on those of a generic and undefined вЂњuser.вЂќ Definition of a PersonaДЄ persona is a fictional, yet realistic, description of a typical or target user of the product. An entire arsenal of user-research methods can be employed to achieve a user-centered design.

#Persona meaning software

Whether the final product is a website, software application, mobile app, or interactive kiosk, a user-centered design can only be achieved if we know who is going to use it and if that knowledge informs our design. In order to do so, we must understand people-their behaviors, attitudes, needs, and goals.

#Persona meaning how to

The field of user experience centers on the idea that we must design products around people, rather than teaching people how to use products: user-centered design (UCD), not technology-centered design.