ISG Playbook
APIsWhat is a Persona?
Making it Personal. The bare facts and numbers are useful when it comes to creating reports and measuring financial success. However, when interacting with humans, it is vital to be able to relate to the individual on a personal level. A Persona is a fictitious character that embodies a segment of real-world users of your product, website or service. It is based on information gathered via research, both qualitative and quantitative. A persona relays an individual’s driving influences, disappointments as well as the crux of who they are.
Why Create a Persona?
Empathy can change the world. Personas are based on real people. As such it helps you to better understand the thoughts, feelings and actions of those who will be using your service. Without a persona, the data you gather just presents as cold uncompelling facts with no real world effect. The embodiment of these facts in a persona allows you and other stakeholders to empathize with your users. With this understanding and empathy, you are able to better modify the design and functionality of your product or service to fit the needs of your users.
How to Create a Persona:
Personas can look and feel different based on who creates them. However there are certain things that they should all have in common: The persona should be compiled during the initial discovery phase of the project. It is important to keep it to a single page and to ensure that the information is presented in a way to quickly and clearly communicate the information. The steps involved in the creation of a persona are as follows:
- Gather the Data: Speak to your users, conduct surveys, review web analytics and take note of things you’ve personally observed.
- Segment the Information: There can only be one: Your persona should not represent only one person. Neither can it represent your entire user base. Divide your data into multiple personas using affinity diagramming or card-sorting. Place all of the ideas on a large surface such as a whiteboard, wall or table. Choose one to focus on.
- Define the Demographics: Who are they? Include basic information such as name, photo, age, marital status, job, income, residence and family members.
- Describe the Background: Write a short bio about your persona. Include history, preferences, habits, likes/dislikes, etc.
- List Their Goals: Why does the user hope to achieve with your product/service/site? Or even overall?
- Motivations and Pain points: Why are they using your product/service/site specifically? What frustrates them about your product/service/site?
- Additional Information: You can include a quote that summarizes their feelings about your product/service/site. You can also include other brands, services or sites that the user likes.
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What is a Persona?
A summary of user research presented in a fictional, composite person representing a group of real end users. A user persona helps project teams and stakeholders understand who the product is intended for, their primary tasks, and the contexts of product use.
When to use it
Develop user personas anytime you design products for use by other people.
How to use it
You can create provisional user personas before user research using your best guesses about user types. Revise your personas later using actual user research results. Revisit personas anytime you learn new info about people using your products and services.
Name and Role
Invent a name for your fictional composite, and a real role for that type or group of users. Ensure names across your personas show diversity.
Comfort with Technology
Move the dot on the spectrum to represent an approximate level of comfort using technology in general.
Line of Business Represented
Enter line of business name(s) here.
A Day in Her/His Life
Translate persona goals into real-life typical tasks to create a day’s schedule. Include relevant offline tasks to provide context of use.
Quotation
Enter a first-person statement of purpose for this persona that represents their driving interest or need.
What We Can Do to Help Her/Him
List possible approaches or strategies to solve this persona’s primary problems.
Goals
List the primary work goals of this type of user.
Photo and Caption
Use a royalty-free, owned, or purchased photo to characterize the persona. Ensure photos across your personas show diversity.
Pain Points
List the primary problems this type of user encounters when using the product or service.
Uses Enterprise Services
Increase or decrease the bar on the spectrum to represent an approximate frequency of usage of the identified HCQIS enterprise services.
Needs Help Desk
Move the dot on the spectrum to represent an approximate need for help when using the product or service.
For more information:
- https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/article/creating-personas-from-user-research-results
- https://www.usability.gov/how-to-and-tools/methods/personas.html
- http://uxmag.com/articles/personas-the-foundation-of-a-great-user-experience