A persona is a fictional representation of a real customer. Creating a persona can reduce human bias and help you prioritize your design. You should create at least 3-5 personas and focus on universal themes. Personal information is not appropriate. You should create a persona that is representative of your target audience. You can even use an actor or model to perform a research study. Just be sure to be as serious and relevant as you can be.
Personas are fictional representations of real customers
While user personas are useful for guiding proposed solutions, they are inherently biased and have no connection to actual customer data. Unlike archetypes, personas are not scientific because they do not tap into the collective unconscious. A persona is nothing more than a fictional representation of a real customer. To make it useful, it must be part of a scenario. In this way, it can be used to guide the development of products and services and decide how to prioritize new features and functions.
User interviews are the most effective way to create user personas. In addition to interviews, a product or service may require surveys or focus groups to collect information. Purchase records or help desk calls are other sources of important feedback. To get more accurate information about your customers, you can also survey existing clients. Offer them incentives to participate in surveys such as gift cards or a chance to win a prize. You can also conduct original research to create personas based on your findings.
They reduce human biases
While it may seem like an obvious step, using personas to design products is more effective when it involves avoiding human biases. These profiles provide a proxy for the research that UX teams will conduct. They enable the team to understand the behaviors and needs of target users, while avoiding the assumptions and generalizations that often plague UX projects. If you want to avoid human biases, here are five steps you can take to make your product better for people like them.
The first step in creating a persona is to identify what kinds of people are represented by your product. Using a single image reinforces stereotypes and plays off implicit responses. It can even lead to the unconscious exclusion of groups. Using a number of user images to guide the design process helps guard against prejudice and encourages a design team to think outside of the box. You can also test the effectiveness of personas by putting yourself in the shoes of your target users.
They help prioritize who to design for
Before starting to design a user experience, create a list of people who use your product. These are known as personas, and they help prioritize who to design for. By grouping the people together, you can create a clear character for each persona. Then, you can break them down further into different groups based on their business needs. You can even add distinct roles to these personas. To make them more believable, add details to their profiles, including their environment or their working environment.
Create personas for each of the different types of people who use your product. Make sure you research these different groups to know which features they need most. You should also include quotes and demographic information. Use user research to develop personas, since these groups often share some common characteristics. Use personas to prioritize who to design for, and use them as a guide for all your design decisions. They are an effective tool for evaluating the success of your products.