Using Personas to Influence User Experience Design
To better understand how personas can be used to influence user experience design; you must first have a clear understanding of how personas and UX design are defined. In today’s ever changing world it takes hard work, dedication, and an innovative approach to successfully provide user design that truly represents the best interests of the business stakeholder and the product or service user. The competent based research will help create a better relationship between the seller and the buyer.
Personas are ideal for designer teams that experience poor communication skills, or where projects are not effectively clarified or understood by everyone involved. Well researched personas have proven to be more efficient and convincing. Creating accurate personas is one thing, but applying them is another thing altogether.
User Experience Design — This is the process of making sure the user is satisfied with a product or service by enhancing usability, access, and overall enjoyment. User experience design is also known as UX Design.
What are Personas? — To put it simply, a persona is a representation of the main goals of a project. It is the process of researching the needs and interests with the user in mind. Personas can be broken down into 3 basic types:
Marketing — The marketing persona is nothing more than gathering information surrounding user demographics. The goal is to determine what motivates the buyer to purchase certain products and services. This process causes the researcher to analyze media habits, shopping preferences, and to thoroughly examine the marketing message. It is all about finding out what the customers like or don’t like. Business stakeholders need to know what the return on investment will be for the product or service. The marketing persona can help determine that information.
Photo — The photo persona is directed more at secondary research. It is not much more than an educated guess about the users they are designing the product or service for. This process typically takes place when money and time are not on your side. It forces you to take a general snapshot of the user and hopefully draw a reasonable conclusion that will benefit everyone involved. This type is not soundly based or researched like the others, but in the end, it is better to use some type of persona than none at all.
Design — The design persona is widely popular because it thoroughly evaluates user goals. It examines present behavior and is founded on real-time research in the field on real people. This process allows the designer or design team to define why behaviors are what they are. It is designed to make certain the team constantly keeps the user in mind. When used properly it can improve communication and hone research insights. It places more focus on user goals and allows the team to better understand and focus upon the particular types of users during the product development process.
Attributes of Personas in UX Design — Personas display specific attributes in the UX Design process. A good persona will reflect the various buying patterns of users in the present, not in the future. A soundly based and competently researched persona will be realistic and not confused with off-base ideals. It will target the project challenges and assist you in determining the user’s main objectives and desires.
A soundly researched and developed persona will examine the user context in all things related to the particular product or service. It will study specific behaviors and general attitudes towards challenges. It is fundamentally effective in defining user goals and the motivators that drive them to pursue or turn away from certain products.
Distinct Persona Benefits — The ultimate goal of any good persona is to make certain the best product or service is being developed for the business stakeholder’s customer base. Businesses are more apt to consider these approach options if they can visually see the end return on their investment. The better the business understand the user, the more capable they are of knowing what drives their purchase habits. Once the needs and wants of the user are documented it is much easier to develop a product they will pursue.
During the development process customers often make late design requests that can throw a normal project into confusion. Without good personas in place, team members start throwing out various opinions about the target user and no one can reach agreement on realistic user goals. If not careful, they can wind up developing designs that never actually get utilized. This quickly becomes the “Elastic User” process. The probable user needs and wants are stretched thin and never allow the ideal product to materialize.
The persona is designed to be elevated into the voice of the user. When conducted soundly and with true research it should be observed with extreme focus. The persona becomes more valuable when it is based on customer needs and goals. It becomes less effective when focused on unnecessary system capabilities and features that fail to lure the user to the product.
The benefits of personas allow the business to validate the product or service in development or disprove it due to the lack of concurrence with user needs and goals. Another benefit is that it causes the designer team to focus on priorities and to research the various elements of the development process. It allows for more critique during development until the final product is prepared.
The designer can begin to create personas on the user target from day one. All areas of the process can be researched and recorded. As the research goes on the designer or designer team may begin to see certain similarities and agree on the best path to pursue with vigor.
The use of personas will definitely assist in developing a more plausible product or service for the user. It can be used to tie researched information together piece by piece. It opens up the channels of communication and provides all team members with a better understanding of the development process. All business stakeholders should consider using personas to influence user experience design.
