Personas Definition
Imagine a virtual character that represents your potential customers, their behavior, habits, etc. If marketers, designers, and strategists have such a tool in their hands, then identifying valuable information about end users does not happen in the abstract, but on the basis of clear data, showing what stops them from buying a product or service, and also providing answers to other questions — the more the better.
Everything that was said above applies to the Persona, and let’s take a closer look at its value and potential benefit.
What are Personas and why are they important?
Personas (or, in other words, UX-personas) are profiles with pseudo-role characters that are created based on real users. This is done to help designers and business teams determine the specific needs and behavioral patterns of the project’s target audience. As is clear from the description, such images allow you to solve several important problems at once:
- Strengthen empathy, which in this case helps to enter the user’s world and more deeply understand his motivation and reasons for actions,
- Coordinate communication so that instead of abstract guests of the application or site, we refer to specific names that evoke strong associations,
- Set priorities that allow you not to scatter among the functionality, but to concentrate attention on really important functions.
At its core, a well-developed persona is not just a demographic unit, but a full-fledged collective image from a complex of goals, pain points, behavioral tactics and motivational arguments, which makes it an invaluable tool for UX development.
How to create effective personas
Even from a superficial explanation of the concept of a persona, it becomes clear that the more detailed it is written and the more data is included in the creation of this image, the more effective the use of this model will ultimately be. This is why Persona generation is approached thoroughly and not superficially, discarding overly generalized ideas and penetrating to the very essence.
With the aim that the result to be applicable for specific purposes, the process of creating UX personas is divided into the following stages:
- Data collection. It is based on various methods that provide a comprehensive idea of the demographic status of the object, its habits, behavioral lines and purchasing characteristics. Interviews, surveys, and analytics are usually used as tools.
- Formation of prototypes. Using all the information received, specialists create a prototype of clients with initial ideas about potential buyers.
- Research of user behavior. At this stage, constant and controlled observation of active participants in the process is carried out, recording real successful examples and accents that led to the completion of the transaction.
- Updating personas. Based on real data from practical experience, the model is adjusted depending on the actions that were performed, which allows using a clearer, more precise persona, as close as possible to the real user.
In such a way that for all stages to be completed as effectively as possible, one should adhere to the principles of realism, purposefulness, memorability and concentration. Only clear data that influences the design is used, including personal, professional and behavioral attributes. A name, a short biography and a photo help to remember the personas, and a small number of them allows you not to scatter and implement the case as successfully as possible.
Conclusion
On that account, personas are not just fictitious personalities, but an effective tool, especially if they were created according to all the rules and taking into account all the nuances. They can be included in discussions regarding the importance of specific functions or checked through their prism for the implementation of new solutions.
The main thing is not to forget to update them when changing or scaling the business, and then the product will not be focused on an impersonal “someone”, and therefore — it will be in demand and successful.