User personas are like imaginary friends for designers. They help them understand how real people might use their product. These personas are made up of different characteristics, wants, and actions of the people who might use the product. Thus helping to shape how the product is made and how well it does.
As we learn more about how to create user personas, we’ll find out how to use them and make sure they stay a key part of your design plan.
Get ready to make your data more human, understand your users better, and make your designs more meaningful!
Why Create User Personas?
Personas aren’t just a list of people’s ages or jobs; they are pretend people who represent different groups of your audience. They are based on lots of research and thus show both the practical and emotional sides of how a person interacts with a product or service.
For example, it could be a student finding it hard to understand tough school subjects, a busy boss who needs to save time, or a beginner using a complicated software program. Personas are the names we give to the information we have about our users.
Basically, personas are a way to understand people better. They give us knowledge about what users want, what problems they have, and how they make choices.
By giving these details a name and a face, they help teams:
- Understand the user better
- Keep the user in mind during the design process
- Make important decisions about what the product should look like and how it should work
Different Roles of User Personas in Design
- Goal-Oriented Personas: This persona is focused on what the user wants to achieve.
For instance, “Busy Bob” is a middle-aged professional who wants to buy groceries online quickly and easily. His main goal is to save time, so the design must provide quick and efficient shopping options.
- Role-Based Personas: These personas are based on the user’s role in their organization or life.
For example, “Manager Mary” is a project manager who needs a software tool to track her team’s progress. Her role requires oversight and control, so the design should include features like dashboards, task tracking, and reporting.
- Engaging Personas: To make them seem more genuine and relatable, these personas provide a lot of personal information.
For instance, “Student Sam” is a college freshman who loves playing the guitar and hanging out with his friends. He uses a note-taking app to keep track of his lectures and assignments. His backstory can therefore help the design team understand his motivations and create a product that fits into his lifestyle.
- Fictional Personas: These personas are made-up characters that represent the user base. They aren’t based on specific research but on the team’s understanding of the users.
For example, “Retiree Rachel” is a 65-year-old woman who enjoys gardening and reading. She uses a health app to track her daily walks. Though she’s fictional, she represents a segment of users that the team must consider when designing the app.
- Proto-Personas: When there isn’t much data available, these personas are created at the start of a project. They’re based on the team’s initial assumptions and are updated as more data is collected.
For instance, “Entrepreneur Eric” is a startup founder who uses a productivity tool to manage his tasks. As user feedback and data come in, Eric’s persona would be adjusted to match the real users more accurately.
- Data-Driven Personas: These personas are based on hard data like user surveys, interviews, or analytics.
For example, “Nurse Nancy” is a character created from data collected from hundreds of nurses. She works night shifts and uses a medical reference app to check drug interactions. Her persona is backed up by actual data, making her representation more accurate.
Each persona is a tool to help understand the needs, goals, and behaviors of different user groups. They help the design team make a product that people will love to use.
Let’s discover how to create user personas!
ALSO READ: User Research Democratization: Why it MattersSteps To Create User Personas
Creating user personas involves understanding your users and their behaviors, needs, and goals. Here are seven simple steps to help you create useful user personas:
Research Your Users
Start by learning about your users. This could involve surveys, interviews, focus groups, or even studying analytics and user data if you already have a product out there. Ask about their needs, their habits, and their pain points. The aim here is to gather as much information as you can.
Identify User Groups
Once you’ve collected your data, try to find patterns or common characteristics among your users. Maybe they’re mostly from a certain age group, have similar jobs, or all use your product for a similar reason. Group these users together based on these common features.
Create a Basic Profile for Each Group
Now, for each group you identified, create a basic profile. This might include demographic information like age, occupation, and education. But also think about their lifestyle, their hobbies, and their values. Remember, these are fictional characters, but they represent real groups of users.
Identify Goals and Motivations
For each persona, you’ll want to understand their goals and motivations. Why would they use your product? What do they hope to achieve? This will help you understand what features and functionalities are most important to them.
Identify Pain Points and Challenges
Similarly, you should think about the challenges or problems these personas might face. This could be related to your product, like features they might find confusing, or it could be broader issues related to your product’s category.
Craft User Scenarios
Once you have your personas and their goals, create scenarios where your personas interact with your product. This helps you visualize how different users might use your product and can reveal any issues or missing features you hadn’t considered.
Refine and Review
Finally, don’t consider your personas set in stone. You’ll want to revisit them and refine them over time as you learn more about your users or as your product evolves. Remember, personas are tools to help you keep the user at the center of your design process.
ALSO READ: Getting Feedback That Matters: Crafting User Experience SurveysDevelop Effective User Personas With Surveys
Want to make solid user personas? Use surveys!
Ask your users or potential users lots of questions. Find out their likes, dislikes, habits, and needs. Make sure your questions cover both practical and emotional aspects. Be patient and gather as much information as you can. Then, analyze this data and group similar responses. Each group can form a persona – a pretend person who represents a part of your audience.
Keep your personas handy when making design choices. This way, you’re basing your decisions on real people’s needs. Surveys make your personas reliable and your design user-friendly.
