'Persona' Defined
A persona is defined as "a single representation of a cluster of target users who represent similar behaviors, goals and motivations." html5-dom-document-internal-entity2-126-end html5-dom-document-internal-entity2-169-end Nielsen Norman Group
More simply put, personas are models, usually based on research, representing an individual's characteristics, needs, goals, and motivations. Taking it a step further, truly diverse personas include attributes like aptitude, ability, and attitude, as well as access points to assistive technology.
Common Attributes for Diverse Personas
- Name: Giving your persona a name helps humanize that persona; you may even begin to refer to the persona by name.
- Demographics:html5-dom-document-internal-entity2-160-endThese include age, gender, location, and occupation.
- Picture: Giving the user a face makes them more real and relatable, although it is not required.
- Ability: Do the userhtml5-dom-document-internal-entity2-8217-ends abilities create challenges when using a computer or mobile device?
- Aptitude: How experienced is the user in navigating the web?
- Attitude: What is the userhtml5-dom-document-internal-entity2-8217-ends attitude toward the web?
- Access points: Does this user need assistive technologies to access the web?
- Motivations: Why would this user visit your website? What does your website have to offer this user?
- Goals: Whathtml5-dom-document-internal-entity2-8217-ends the user looking for? Information, a specific product, to sign up for your newsletter?
- Frustrations: What difficulties does this user have with certain tasks? What is the severity of those difficulties?
- Quote: What quote or change statement describes this user and the challenges they face that you are working to solve?
Why Is It Important to Define Attributes in Detail?
Well-defined attributes create a well-defined persona, and that persona creates an understanding of and empathy for our users. And if we donhtml5-dom-document-internal-entity2-8217-endt understand our users, we will make assumptions about them; our innate biases will be baked into our designs and code. We can easily slip into the self-referential design. We then lose the opportunity to create an experience that is more accessible to a more diverse audience.
How Do Personas Work?
Personas communicate about our users in a way other data and artifacts simply cannot. Personas:
- Create empathy html5-dom-document-internal-entity2-8211-end one human being's ability to understand, relate to, and share and html5-dom-document-internal-entity2-8220-endfeelhtml5-dom-document-internal-entity2-8221-end the feelings of another human being.
- Tell stories html5-dom-document-internal-entity2-8211-end the ability to mix facts and narrative to create and share something emotionally engaging while creating a sense of community.
- Encourage experience taking html5-dom-document-internal-entity2-8211-end the ability to identify with and simulate a fictional character's emotions, thoughts, goals, motivations, and beliefs.
- Encourage theory of mind html5-dom-document-internal-entity2-8211-end the ability to predict someonehtml5-dom-document-internal-entity2-8217-ends behavior by understanding their state of mind.
Example Personas
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has a terrific collection of written personas. This is a fantastic place to start if you are getting familiar with constructing and implementing personas in your project lifecycle. Stories of Web Users
Personas are in no way a substitute for automated, manual, and user testing html5-dom-document-internal-entity2-8211-end or good old-fashioned customer interaction. However, they are a great tool for better decision-making html5-dom-document-internal-entity2-8211-end focusing on user needs and goals, providing an organization-wide understanding of your users, defending design decisions, and enabling you and your team to create a richer, more accessible user experience.
Resources
- Personas | The Inclusive Design Guide
- Understanding disabilities and impairments: user profiles | gov.uk
- Making the Web Accessible for Everyone With Inclusive Design and Diverse Personas | envatotuts+
- Diverse Abilities and Barriers | W3C Web Accessibility Initiative
- Personas: Turning User Data Into User-Centered Design (training course material) | Page Laubheimer, Nielsen Norman Group
Deeper Dives
- What are Personas? | Interaction Design Foundation (video)
- Changing Beliefs and Behavior Through Experience-Taking | Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
Personas and Accessibility | Udacity (video)
