How to avoid unconscious biases in creating personas

The key to creating user personas that represent our ideal users is by actively avoiding unconscious bias.

One of the struggles I faced when I started out doing UX research was avoiding unconscious bias. Even though I have all the data from my surveys laid out in front of me, somehow, some of my biases manifested themselves into my persona creation.

Thankfully, my mentors pointed out these biases, and I regained my posture to set it right. But how can we avoid unconscious bias in the first place so that we will be able to provide the most impact to our users?

What are user personas?

User personas are fictional representations of your ideal users, and they are made to understand who will be using your product. These are usually presented in a one-page document that includes their behavioral patterns, goals, pain points, etc. Here’s an example of a user persona template:

User Persona Template by Just In Mind

What is unconscious bias?

According to the Office of Diversity Outreach,

Unconscious biases are social stereotypes about certain groups of people that individuals form outside their own conscious awareness. Everyone holds unconscious beliefs about various social and identity groups, and these biases stem from one’s tendency to organize social worlds by categorizing.

Some of the unconscious biases we hold are taught at an early age by society and deeply ingrained in our unconscious thoughts. And these biases can influence how we make our decisions for the users, especially in forming our user personas. These can then give us blind spots in our personas, making it more difficult for us to design for the intended users.

1. Be aware of your own biases

The first step to avoiding unconscious biases is to become aware of your own biases. Understanding that biases can happen, especially depending on the language we have chosen, can help us catch ourselves in placing unspecific and insensitive descriptions in our personas.

Things that UX researchers need to be aware of include naming conventions, imagery, and accessibility.

Here are some areas to focus on, complete with examples and guiding questions:

1. Language and Naming Conventions

• Example: While crafting a persona for a software engineer, there’s a tendency to use “he” as the default pronoun. This can inadvertently reinforce the stereotype that tech fields are male-dominated.

Guide Questions:

• Are the pronouns I’m using reflecting diverse gender identities?
• Could the names I choose for my personas be inadvertently suggesting certain racial or ethnic backgrounds? How might this impact my design assumptions?

2. Imagery and Representation

• Example: When choosing images for personas, using only pictures of young, able-bodied individuals can exclude a significant portion of the user base, such as older adults or those with disabilities.

Guide Questions:

• Do the images I select for my personas represent a broad spectrum of users, including different ages, abilities, and body types?
• How might the visual representation of personas influence my assumptions about users’ needs and preferences?

3. Accessibility Considerations

• Example: It’s easy to overlook the need for personas representing users with different types of disabilities, such as visual or auditory impairments, which can lead to designs that are not fully accessible.

Guide Questions

• Have I considered accessibility needs in my personas, such as the requirement for screen readers or alternative input devices?
• How does the assumption of users’ perfect health and ability limit the inclusivity of my product design?

4. Addressing and Challenging Your Biases

• When I describe a persona, am I relying on stereotypes or assumptions that could narrow my understanding of the user?
• Am I open to challenging my own biases by seeking feedback from diverse groups of colleagues or users?

By engaging with these examples and guiding questions, UX researchers can cultivate a more nuanced and inclusive approach to persona creation. This not only enriches the research process but also leads to product designs that are more thoughtful, accessible, and user-centric.

2. Test your own biases

While it is impossible to remove our biases completely, it is our own responsibility as UX designers to test our own biases and identify the root of where they came from.

A better way of categorizing personas is by their ability, aptitude, and attitude. Ability describes their physical and cognitive abilities. Aptitude represents the persona's level of knowledge and skill, while attitude shows the amount of motivation, emotion, and persistence.

1. Language Adjustments. Beyond swapping out gendered terms like “chairman” for “board member,” consider other language that might inadvertently exclude or stereotype. For example, using “tech-savvy” to describe a young user persona assumes older individuals are not as adept with technology, which is not always the case.

• Practice: Try rephrasing descriptions to eliminate assumptions about age, gender, or ability. Instead of “tech-savvy teenager,” you might use “user familiar with the latest technology,” leaving age out of the equation.

2. Scenario Testing. When evaluating personas, place them in a variety of scenarios to see if your biases have influenced their creation. For instance, if you’ve designed a persona named Alex, who is an avid gamer, consider whether you’ve unconsciously assumed Alex’s gender, age, or socioeconomic status.

• Practice: Ask yourself, “Could this persona realistically represent users from different demographics than I initially envisioned?”

3. Diverse Feedback. Involve team members or stakeholders from varied backgrounds to review your personas. They might spot biases or assumptions you’ve overlooked.

• Practice: Organize a feedback session focusing on uncovering any potential biases in your personas. Encourage participants to question and challenge assumptions.

4. Persona Categorization by Traits. Enhance the way you categorize personas by focusing on their relationship with your product or service. For example, categorize users by how frequently they use your product (“daily users” vs. “occasional users”) rather than demographics that might not impact their user experience.

• Practice: Consider personas’ motivations for using your product, their goals, and the challenges they face, rather than their demographic characteristics.

By enriching your understanding of biases and integrating these practices into your workflow, you’ll create more accurate, inclusive, and effective personas. This not only enhances the user experience but also fosters a more empathetic design approach.

3. Craft personas grounded on data

Creating user personas is a nuanced art deeply rooted in science. It’s not about making educated guesses or basing your designs on hypothetical user desires tied to a specific demographic. The cornerstone of effective persona creation lies in leveraging the rich insights your UX research data offers about what users truly aspire to, what they want, and what they need.

Deep Dive into Data Types:

• Quantitative Data. This type of data gives you hard numbers and stats. Think survey responses, usage metrics, and other forms of analytics. It’s essential for identifying trends and patterns at a large scale. For example, if data shows a significant portion of your user base frequently uses a specific feature, you might create a persona that highlights this usage pattern.

Guide to Interpreting Quantitative Data: Look for patterns in the numbers. High engagement rates, common user pathways, and feature usage rates can indicate what’s most valuable to your users. This, in turn, should shape the priorities and behaviors of your personas.

• Qualitative Data. Here, we delve into the why and how — user interviews, open-ended survey responses, and observational studies. This data type is golden for understanding the motivations, frustrations, and aspirations of your users. It’s what breathes life into your personas, adding depth and emotion that numbers alone can’t convey.

Guide to Leveraging Qualitative Data: Read between the lines. Look for repeated phrases, sentiments, and feedback across different users. These insights can inform the goals, challenges, and personality traits of your personas, making them relatable and realistic.

Incorporating Data into Personas:

• Identify and Highlight Key Themes. Once you’ve sifted through your data, the next step is to distill it into key themes and patterns. These should directly inform the construction of your personas. For instance, if a significant number of users express a need for more personalized content, this could become a central trait of one of your personas.
• Use Data to Challenge Assumptions. Data serves as the perfect antidote to unconscious bias. It compels us to confront our assumptions with reality. If your data reveals that a substantial portion of your user base is not who you initially thought they were, it’s crucial to adjust your personas accordingly. This might mean revisiting the drawing board with fresh eyes, free from preconceived notions.
• Visual Representation with Data. In moving away from traditional demographic markers like age, ethnicity, gender, and location, consider using data-driven illustrations to depict your personas. These visuals can capture the essence of your users’ emotions, priorities, values, and needs without resorting to stereotypes. For example, instead of stating a user’s age, an illustration can show them in environments or scenarios that reflect their lifestyle and preferences, informed by your qualitative research findings.

Practical Steps for Grounded Persona Creation:

1. Compile and Analyze Your Data. Gather all your quantitative and qualitative data in one place. Use tools like spreadsheets for quantitative analysis and thematic coding for qualitative insights.
2. Synthesize Findings into Actionable Insights. Look for commonalities and trends in your data that speak to user behavior, needs, and motivations. This synthesis will form the backbone of your personas.
3. Create Data-Driven Narratives. Each persona should tell a story that resonates with the real experiences of your users. Use the insights gleaned from your data to craft these narratives, ensuring they are rooted in actual user feedback and behaviors.
4. Iterate Based on New Data. Persona creation is not a one-and-done task. As new data comes in, be prepared to iterate on your personas. This ensures they remain accurate reflections of your user base over time.

By adhering to a data-driven approach, you not only ensure your personas are anchored in reality but also pave the way for designs that genuinely meet user needs and expectations. This meticulous, informed process might take time, but the payoff in creating resonant and effective user experiences is well worth the effort.

Personas aren’t about what you think they would aspire, want, or need based on a specific demographic. Instead, it should always be based on what your UX research data says that they aspire, want, and need.

Make sure that you understand what the quantitative and qualitative data says, and take the time to determine the patterns and themes in their responses. If it’s difficult for you to understand, especially for beginners, make the conscious decision to do your best to understand. Let’s not rush the process.

Importantly, only include data in the persona that can contribute to understanding the behavior of the intended users. In fact, numerous UX case studies now remove age, ethnicity, gender, and location in their personas. They instead use illustrations as imagery to uncover the emotions, priorities, values, and needs of the users.

Final Thoughts

Everyone has unconscious biases, and it is part of our human nature. However, in UX research, we need to set aside those biases to ensure that we design with the users in mind.

To provide the best solution to a problem, we need to put ourselves in the users' shoes. And this requires a whole deal of empathy.

I had to learn firsthand that sympathizing vs. empathizing with the users produces completely different sets of personas. The ability to empathize with the intended users brings the user personas to a different level, making the readers feel with the persona.

The active effort of making sure that every decision we make is user-centric shows that we are maturing in our UX journey.

We can identify that we have finally fleshed out the perfect persona when we respect the persona’s perspective and behavior towards the product we are designing. That is why it’s important to avoid unconscious bias when creating personas — it can be the single thread that can make or break the whole UX architecture.

Setting a healthy level of awareness on our biases will allow UX researchers like us to develop more reliable personas to utilize in product strategy and design.

Thank you for reading! I hope you liked the article ❤️, and if so please leave a clap 👏 so the algorithms will do it too.