UX Personas — Create UX Personas Properly
UX Personas are not helpful unless they are made correctly!
Here’s the thing. Writing down information is only helpful if you actually use it. Also, the things you write down need to be helpful too. This might seem obvious, but it’s not always easy. When it comes to writing down information about a group of people, called a persona, we’ve seen a lot of examples that aren’t helpful at all.
Let me explain this in a simple way. Making personas is really important, but most of the personas we’ve seen aren’t helpful at all. Why do people make bad personas? Because they don’t do research first. So, what makes a good persona? That’s a great question! Let’s talk about it.
UX Personas?
Let me explain this in simpler words. User personas are like made-up versions of real data that show what a certain group of people have in common. Usually, a user persona is a document that’s 1 to 3 pages long. It talks about things like what skills a group of people has, what they want to do, and other things that make them similar.
We often see people making a big mistake — they make a persona-based only on what they assume about a group of people. Instead, a persona should be based on real information.
Why UX Persona?
Here’s why you might want to create a user persona:
UX Personas in Product Development
UX personas can be used to write down what you found out about users when you did research. This can help the people working on the product understand how to make decisions that are more thoughtful of users’ feelings.
Decision making
Making product decisions based on the traits of your users.
Recording the discoveries made during research
A user persona document should be a central hub that is frequently checked and kept up-to-date. It’s a place you can refer to when you’re not sure.
UX personas are important because they help you understand and care about users, which is the opposite of ignoring them.
However, we should discuss the errors that individuals tend to commit. It seems like a product management ritual to create personas, and the majority of product experts acknowledge their effectiveness. Consequently, let us also establish a UX persona! While this approach could potentially result in favorable consequences, it fails to consider the underlying reasons behind the decision, hastily jumping to the “what” without contemplating the “why.”
Rather than simply ticking off a box on your task list, aim to enhance your user research by incorporating the goals we specified earlier. By doing so, you can create a product that offers substantial value. When you fail to identify the ultimate objective, it often leads to developing generic and ineffective personas.
Assumption-based methodologies/approaches
If you’re making an app for Designers, you might start by thinking about who will use it, like Designers and Students. But assuming things about them, like what they want or their personality, isn’t okay. You need to research and understand your users to make a good product.
So, research is important to create personas that represent real people. You should do research at the beginning of the product design process, and it can help with things like deciding what features to include, understanding the customer experience, and learning from competitors. Creating UX personas is especially helpful because it helps you know who you’re making the product for.
More specifically, your research may involve:
- User interviews
- Usability testing
- Surveys
- A/b testings
- Quantitative research (generally used for launched products)
- Qualitative methods
- Card sorting
This list doesn’t include all possible methods, but we frequently use these ones.
Developing an effective persona
Having covered some typical errors people make, let’s now discuss how to create a valuable UX persona. We generally follow a comparable procedure, regardless of whether the product has already been launched. Here is a brief summary of our approach.
- Initially, we organize a workshop with relevant stakeholders such as sales, marketing, and product management, to discuss the various user categories. It’s crucial to be familiar with the existing user knowledge. You don’t have to begin from the very beginning every time. It’s crucial to ensure a diverse range of experts and team members are present to gather more comprehensive insights.
- Additionally, it’s essential to share any available data and prior research on the personas, as it can assist with ideation by providing valuable information.
- At the workshop, we would document details about the various user categories and identify patterns and shared characteristics. We aim to distribute ownership of the various user categories to encourage everyone to share their ideas and opinions.
- If only a few patterns are evident, or the personas seem too generic, it’s probable that you haven’t gone into enough detail. Consider which information would be valuable and where to obtain it.
- Important: aim to analyze the primary disparities in behavior, requirements, challenges, and the data that users seek. This approach will prevent irrelevant discussions, such as a persona’s car preferences when developing a designing application.
- Develop a foundation for your personas — this ought to encapsulate all the efforts done thus far and foster consistency within the team and with stakeholders.
- Verify and enhance those foundations by conducting research and interviews. Record the outcomes. You may either choose an elaborate design or a basic spreadsheet. Both choices serve their function perfectly well.
- Remember to present the conclusions and ultimate personas to the entire team to prevent any misconceptions (in the event of modifications) and to emphasize the importance of research to skeptical stakeholders (which is why we don’t use the foundations as the ultimate personas).
So,
This article aims to encourage you to create a UX persona by highlighting common mistakes to avoid. Despite these challenges, creating a persona is a worthwhile effort that can yield useful insights for product management and UX design.
