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Persona

When to use it

A persona is an archetype of a user group derived from combining attributes of real users to form a ficticious character to be used as inspiration in the design process. Use this tool to bring to life the drivers and needs of specific user groups to help you answer the question, “Who am I designing for?”

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What’s the purpose

Personas are fictional and generic representations of your users that help you understand the common motivations, behaviors and needs of a user group. This is a useful exercise to create a shared view of the target audience of the service, product or experience you’re designing for, and to gain empathy for your end-user to ensure that your solutions satisfy their needs.

How to do it

After conducting research, think about who your key user groups are by segmenting your audience according to similar attributes or behaviors.
For each user group, use the ‘Persona’ template to bring the character to life by creating a fictional name for the user and adding an image that represents them.
Capture the key information that you have about them, including any distinguishing characteristics, their goals/motivations, challenges/frustrations, and habits. Highlight any questions or unknowns that come up.
When the persona feels ‘real’ and complete, move on to the next one, by creating a new template, until all user groups have been considered.

Helpful tips

Keep returning to your personas as you begin to generate solutions to ensure that your ideas are human-centred.
Avoid assumptions and stereotypes by always basing your personas on evidence that you’ve collected.
If you’ve created an Empathy Map, it can provide useful background to help you flesh out your persona.

Using this method in your day-to-day work

Keeping the person you are designing for at the centre of your efforts is essential whenever you’re designing any solution in your day-to-day work. Use the ‘Personas’ template to ground yourself in precisely who it is that you are designing for and keep their needs at the centre of your solution. E.g. If you are working on an internal project for your company to develop a new service that will benefit employees, create personas of the employees to factor in their differing needs as you build out your design.

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The lesson behind this method

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