One for everyone - Personae as a basis for decision-making
When it comes to making information from surveys, observations and research on the user community and project participants accessible, we often use personae. Personae are fictitious user profiles that are usually based on real data.
These user profiles serve us as a basis for decision-making in the development process - for example, for questions about prioritizing features, types of information preparation, or aesthetic considerations. In user tests, personae are a good blueprint for recruiting the right test subjects in a targeted manner.
Persona in use
A persona should create a clear picture of its typical users in the project team. Therefore, it is essential for us to include all relevant information in these user profiles. This can be socio-demographic information, personal characteristics, behavior patterns, goals, motivations, tasks, tool set or information on influencing factors.
In order to strengthen the emotional connection to the user community, personae are always given names and photos.
Persona creation
The data basis on which we develop personae differs in different projects. However, it is important that they are based on empirically collected data. This can be existing information from analytics data, customer service experiences, market research or completed studies.
If no robust data is yet available, we can collect it from research, onsite surveys, focus groups, onsite observations or in-depth interviews. For valid personae, it is important that these data come from as diverse sources as possible.
We are happy to conduct the qualitative evaluation of the relevant data and the transformation into personae in a joint workshop with the project team, client and all stakeholders. It leads to a common understanding of the user groups and facilitates the joint work on the product.