Writing Personas

Personas are an important design tool, if used correctly. Important to remember when making a persona is to construct them by using real data and research, as I have written about before. Personas and scenarios consist of several elements. A good persona provides an excellent reference for Interaction Designers to look at whilst designing a product. Personas should be presented as individuals with specific needs, backgrounds and life goals. This is important because it gives the collected user data a face, making it easier for designers to emphasize with end users. Furthermore, personas should represent groups of people but not the average user. It is important to note that stereotypes are not archetypes. Stereotypes are based on assumptions whereas archetypes are based on solid research.

I will now illuminate some key elements contained withing a persona.

Short Description
This deals with the home situation and personal background of the persona. They can include friends and relatives, occupation, education and how this relates to the life at home. Another important part of the description is the current relation the persona has with the product/service being made.

Online Behaviour
Here we are looking at what sites are visited and what the reason is behind visiting these sites. Is the persona an experience user or a novice? What does he like and dislike about certain sites? Is there a trend in his browsing behaviour?

Goals
Goals are very important. It is also important to look at how these goals tie in with the description of the persona and how does it relate to the product or service. Express each goal as a single sentence. The user typically does not know what their goals are of they are usable to describe them accurately, therefore goals should be created by looking at qualitative data. Furthermore, goals can be divided into 3 category´s:
Experience (feeling while using a product eg: feel in control)
End (motivation behind using product eg: do homework)
Life (drive behind end goals eg: be successful)

Motivations
These are directly related to the goal and online behavior. What are the motivations for visiting certain sites, for example. They are the fuel behind goals.

Final note: it is sometimes handy to construct mini personas for users that are not neccesarily using the product but are involved in it’s creation or have a stake in the product.

Some more information:
Benefits of Personas
Yes, you should be using Personas
The Inmates are Running the Asylum
About Face 3: The Essentials of Interaction Design