All About User Personas in UX Design. What is User Persona? How to Create and Use Personas

Understanding what are user personas in UX and how they are used is crucial for designing effective and empathetic products. Personas are representations of our users that help promote empathy by focusing on individuals rather than groups. This shift from talking about "users" to specific personas like "Bob" or "Jane" makes these roles feel more real and relatable.

Personas are essential because they address the fact that real people have unique abilities, understandings, and needs influenced by their circumstances and personal beliefs. Psychological research supports the effectiveness of personas in promoting empathy. For instance, studies like David Sears' person-positivity bias and the scope-severity paradox show that people empathize more with individuals than groups. Personas are created based on thorough user research. They encapsulate users' goals, behaviors, and motivations. Minimal personas include basic demographic details, a photo, primary goals, and behaviors. Extended personas may also include lifestyle interests and hobbies relevant to the problem being solved.

The main goal of personas is to provide focus and clarity in the design process. They ensure that the design team understands who they are building the product for and helps in creating a solution that fits the users' needs. Personas also aid in various stages of the design process, including user research, usability testing, and user evaluation. To create effective personas, teams should ensure that they are based on credible research, keep them relevant to the problem, and use them to enhance empathy. It's important to avoid creating too many personas and instead focus on a few primary personas that represent the core users.

Incorporating personas into the project workspace, such as displaying them on walls or providing laminated copies, helps keep the team aligned and focused on the users' needs throughout the design process. Explore how to create and use personas, the difference between minimal and extended personas, and why they are essential in UX design with insights from experts like William Hudson at the Interaction Design Foundation (IxDF).

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Key Moments:
00:00 Introduction to Personas
00:50 Personal Bias
02:13 Scope-Severity Paradox
03:02 What Are Personas?
03:49 How to Use Personas
04:52 Minimal Personas
05:35 The Importance of Understanding Users
06:24 Extended Personas
07:56 Design Research Personas
09:33 Primary and Secondary Personas
10:13 Persona Example
12:00 Number of Personas
12:52 Accessibility and Inclusivity
14:13 When to Use Personas
15:42 How to Work with Personas

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Author/Copyright holder: Unknown. Copyright terms and license: CCO
Author/Copyright holder: Benoît Prieur. Copyright terms and license: CC BY-SA 4.0
Author/Copyright holder: Bernd Schwabe in Hannover. Copyright terms and license: CC-BY-SA-3.0

[InteractionDesignOrg]

Key Moments:
00:00 Introduction to Personas
00:50 Personal Bias
02:13 Scope-Severity Paradox
03:02 What Are Personas?
03:49 How to Use Personas
04:52 Minimal Personas
05:35 The Importance of Understanding Users
06:24 Extended Personas
07:56 Design Research Personas
09:33 Primary and Secondary Personas
10:13 Persona Example
12:00 Number of Personas
12:52 Accessibility and Inclusivity
14:13 When to Use Personas
15:42 How to Work with Personas

[scholas_creative_space]

It's always the 4 - 11 yr old youtube videos with the most gems. Thank you so much for this clear explanation. I understood so much. The takeaway that is lifechanging to me is that there are different types of personas for different purposes. Getting into UXD I thought all personas are like market research personas. But I think otherwise now. This will make me dig deeper on anything else I learn going forward. Thanks again!

[EMILIOYERO]

Great video, awesome content!!! What is your opinion on proto personas? What is their value? How to create and use them?

[tahtaflint]

this explanation completely explained my discourse on persona development, thanks lots!

[tridsatchetyre]

Why to quote stalin about "just statistics" of famine, which he committed? For you it's appropriate when for Ukrainians and Kazakhs it's cynical because stalin order killed our relatives. It's like quoting hitler on "one death in gas camera it's a tragedy, but millions it's just statistics", disgusting indifference 🤮

[InteractionDesignOrg]

Learn more about personas and UX design in our online courses:

[acesflyhigh]

That’s the real lesson based on real practice. Thank you author..

[bolaobaseki]

whaoh!Im really impressed, this is 100 percent Persona practical class I have ever had Thank you sir

[anhtuantran]

Thanks so much for the lesson. Great knowledge attained from you sir!

[Nagorumba]

First time coming across this video, it's packed filled with knowledge.

[Sotov]

Next IxDF Video: Hitler once said "If you tell a big enough lie and tell it frequently enough, it will be believed" - video about user research

[renata]

Are you really quoting Stalin in this or did I see things that don't exist? I mean, really? A great video but quoting Stalin is really an awful, terrible thing. He was a mass murderer and chatting about him in this way is simply sickening.

[joeferreti]

Good video on the subject of design personas. But ...
As much as I agree that it's good to focus back on the humans, I see a problem in designing systems only for a small number of very concrete personas. I think a lot of other personas' needs might be left out.
No wonder I always get the feeling the systems I encounter are not designed for me!! :/
I dearly hope that personas is not the only tool designers use to get a perspective on what a system needs to provide.