What is a persona?
A persona is a fictional character, built from real data, that serves as a figurehead for a related group of real users with specific needs, goals, pain/pleasure points and motivations.
Personas are created using data gathered from research methodologies such as surveys, depth interviews, usability testing and analytics making them robust, data-driven and representative of real users.
By providing personas with a name, a picture, a biography and a rounded set of characteristics they become familiar, an extended part of the team, who may be consulted at any time: “Would feature X help Charlie find things to do when looking after their grandchildren?”, “How can we reduce Robin’s anxiety about the safety of e-commerce?”
It’s not unusual for several personas to be generated, each representative of a different set of user characteristics. By consulting them all, we inform and prioritise decision-making, helping us to effectively meet the needs of users.
When to use personas?
Personas are useful tools for decision making at all times, but particularly when looking for opportunities to create or improve a product or service.
Sketch personas
What is a sketch persona?
A sketch persona is a fictional character that serves as a figurehead for a related group of real users with specific needs, goals, pain/pleasure points and motivations.
Unlike ‘full’ personas, they are based on limited data and working assumptions, so can be created in less time.
Sketch personas can be used as a starting point for ‘full’ personas.
When to use sketch personas?
Sketch personas are useful tools for decision making at all times, but particularly when looking for opportunities to create or improve a product or service.
Want to create personas for your organisation?
Bunnyfoot has always prioritised evidence capture and valid, bespoke study designs to truly understand the nature of user engagement, interactions and behaviours, in a holistic way.
If you would like to talk about how we can support you with gaining a deeper understanding of your audience so you can make evidence-driven design decisions, we’d love to talk!
