Persona Development

Persona Development is the creation of fictional people who represent the target users of a system.

They are derived from analysing each target segment or profile and generalising the findings to create one fictional person. A persona is a character description that often includes their goals, behaviours, motivations, skills, experience, relationships, spend, attitudes and environment. Fictional attributes such as a name are added so that the persona seems like a real person.

What it provides:

Personas are useful for communicating who the real target users are for a system and what needs to be taken into account when making project and design decisions.

By creating a concrete definition of who the users are, helps a project team recognise and empathise with the type of person they are designing for.

Stories are easier to develop and decisions more easily made if it is clear who the primary audience is for system, and who is not.

As Personas are a digestible synthesis of qualitative research, they are also a useful way to communicate key research findings that can help identify opportunities and drive strategy.