Getting started/Why you need a persona

Why you need a persona

Calling every user as a “user” lacks fidelity and is a generalization which lacks a good understanding of who they are.  Popularized by Alan Cooper, in his book The Inmates Running the Asylum, using a first name with the occupation such as Sarah the Line Cook, or Walter the Waiter help create a personable, and memorable metaphor for a specific group of users. Why is this powerful?
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The Scope-Severity Paradox explains human judgement of harm tends to be based on emotional reactions, and thus people have stronger emotional response to singular identifiable victims rather than a group of sufferers.
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The Person-Positivity Bias is the tendency for people to evaluate individuals more positively than groups they compose.

The fundamental principles

  • Personas are discovered, not invented through user research or talking with customers about the challenges they face today, their needs, and goals.
  • Personas are fabricated representations (based on research) that promote empathy rather than focusing on groups.
  • Personas are one part of a goal-directed methodology which consists of a six-step process for researching, shaping, and defining before designing.

What we left out

Sometimes the ingredients you don’t put in, make the ingredients you do use, that much more special. That is certainly the case with personas and here’s why.

Demographic factors - Age, Gender, Income, Education Level, Marital Status etc.

You don’t need them because they don’t matter until they do circumstantially. Imagine if someone told you need to design for a 50 year old, man, who earns $50k annually, has a high school diploma and is married.

Instead, imagine if I told you Bob, the Amazon delivery vehicle operator represents a group of users that work in transportation, when they are working odd hours, they need nutritious snacks that are fresh, healthy, and easy to prep so that they can sustain energy levels to remain alert on the job.

Which format inspires you to create meaningful solutions with greater user context and insights? Demographics are easily fabricated distractions from the insights that can only be earned by talking to and observing customers in action, first hand.

Format
Example
Without demographics
With demographics

50 year old, man, who earns $50k annually, has a high school diploma and is married.

Bob, the Amazon delivery vehicle operator represents a group of users working in transportation. When they are working odd hours, they need nutritious snacks that are fresh, healthy, and easy to prep so that they can sustain energy levels to remain alert on the job.