User
Persona
What is User Persona?
A user persona is a fictional representation of your ideal customer.
As a UX designer, you’ll start the design process by conducting user
research, Building empathy with your target users and identifying
exactly what they need from the product you’re designing. A
persona is generally based on this user research and incorporates
the needs, goals, and observed behavior patterns of your target
audience.
INSTRUCTOR: MD. SAIFUL ISLAM
SENIOR FACULTY, UY LAB
Why do you need a persona? INSTRUCTOR: MD. SAIFUL ISLAM
SENIOR FACULTY, UY LAB
Whether you’re developing a smartphone app or a mobile-responsive website, it’s very
important to understand who will be using the product. In order to solve a real user problem,
you need to have a clear problem statement in mind; in order to write this problem statement,
you first need to understand your users and their needs.
Knowing your audience will help influence the features and design elements you choose, thus
making your product more useful. A persona clarifies who is in your target audience by
answering the following questions:
* Who is my ideal customer?
* What are the current behavior patterns of my users?
* What are the needs and goals of my users?
* What issues and pain points do they currently face within the given context?
Understanding the needs of your users is vital to developing a successful product.
Well-defined personas will enable you to efficiently identify and communicate user needs.
Personas will also help you describe the individuals who use your product, which is essential
to your overall value proposition.
Personas help with strategizing and making smart design decisions. They make real users
memorable for the product team, helping to focus efforts and build empathy.
How do you define a user persona?
A well-defined user persona contains four key pieces of information:
Header
Demographic profile
End goal(s)
Scenario
INSTRUCTOR: MD. SAIFUL ISLAM
SENIOR FACULTY, UY LAB
Add a header INSTRUCTOR: MD. SAIFUL ISLAM
SENIOR FACULTY, UY LAB
The header includes a fictional name, image, and quote that summarizes what
matters most to the persona as it relates to your product. These features aid in
improving memorability and keeping your design team focused on the users they
are building the product for.
Let’s imagine you’re designing a travel app. The foundations of your user persona
could look like this:
Name: Savannah Rodriguez
Summary quote: “Take me to undiscovered holiday destinations away from the
tourist traps.”
This first step might seem simple, but these features ensure that your persona is
memorable, keeping the design team focused on who they are designing for.
Add a demographic profile
While the name and image can be fictional, demographic details are factual
and based on user research. The demographic profile includes four main
sections : personal background, professional background, user environment,
and psychographics.
INSTRUCTOR: MD. SAIFUL ISLAM
SENIOR FACULTY, UY LAB
Personal background
The personal background includes details such as age, gender, ethnicity,
education, persona group (e.g. working moms), and family status (e.g.
single, married with children, widowed, etc.).
Savannah’s personal background might be described as follows: Savannah,
52 years old, a divorced mother of two, has a Master’s degree in chemistry.
INSTRUCTOR: MD. SAIFUL ISLAM
SENIOR FACULTY, UY LAB
Professional background
The professional background includes details such as job occupation, income
level, and work experience. Here we might add that Savannah works full-time
at a pharmaceutical company and earns around $65,000 per year.
INSTRUCTOR: MD. SAIFUL ISLAM
SENIOR FACULTY, UY LAB
User environment INSTRUCTOR: MD. SAIFUL ISLAM
SENIOR FACULTY, UY LAB
The user environment represents the physical, social, and technological context of the user.
This section is used to answer questions like:
- What technological devices do users have access to?
- Do they spend most of their time in a corporate office or a home office?
- And how often do they collaborate with others?
So, Savannah’s user environment could be in her office, mostly on a laptop, but also on her
iPad when commuting to and from work.
Psychographics INSTRUCTOR: MD. SAIFUL ISLAM
SENIOR FACULTY, UY LAB
Add end goal
INSTRUCTOR: MD. SAIFUL ISLAM
SENIOR FACULTY, UY LAB
Add a scenario
A scenario is a “day-in-the-life” narrative that describes how a persona would interact
with your product in a particular context to achieve his or her end goal(s). The scenario
usually defines when, where, and how the narrative takes place. They are typically
written from the perspective of the persona and describe use cases that may happen in
the future.
For example, Savannah’s scenario could start off like this:
“At least once a year, I like to go away on a luxury holiday. I try to discover places I’ve
never been to before and to stick to destinations that aren’t yet overrun with tourists. I
work full time, so I don’t have that much time to browse and book each individual
element of my holiday. Ideally, I’ll find some kind of package deal that comes with local
restaurant recommendations…”
INSTRUCTOR: MD. SAIFUL ISLAM
SENIOR FACULTY, UY LAB
Additional suggestions
Each user persona is typically one page, which requires you to focus on the
essential elements. As a rule of thumb, avoid adding extra details that cannot be
used to influence the design. If it does not affect the final design or help make any
decisions easier: omit it.
Personas are also key to finding ideal customers in real life so you can test and
validate your product with real people. Therefore, make sure each persona is
specific and realistic: avoid exaggerated caricatures, and include enough detail to
help you find real-life representation.
INSTRUCTOR: MD. SAIFUL ISLAM
SENIOR FACULTY, UY LAB
