Wow! I’ve been interested in the use of personas for website design ever since I read Alan Cooper’s The Inmates Are Running the Asylum (the description of which was subsequently revised and expanded in Cooper’s About Face 2.0). But I’ve never seen the concepts and practice of personas better presented than in Tina Calabria’s article, An introduction to personas … in Step Two Designs’ KM Column.
Cooper’s firm, Cooper Interaction Design has been the main source for information on the use of personas in web design. Basically, according to Cooper’s newsletter, a persona is

…a user archetype you can use to help guide decisions about product features, navigation, interactions, and even visual design. By designing for the archetype—whose goals and behavior patterns are well understood—you can satisfy the broader group of people represented by that archetype. In most cases, personas are synthesized from a series of ethnographic interviews with real people, then captured in 1-2 page descriptions that include behavior patterns, goals, skills, attitudes, and environment, with a few fictional personal details to bring the persona to life.

Even more clearly presented is Calabria’s definition of personas:

Personas are archetypal users of an intranet or website that represent the needs of larger groups of users, in terms of their goals and personal characteristics. They act as ‘stand-ins’ for real users and help guide decisions about functionality and design.
 
Personas identify the user motivations, expectations and goals responsible for driving online behaviour, and bring users to life by giving them names, personalities and often a photo.
 
Although personas are fictitious, they are based on knowledge of real users. Some form of user research is conducted before they are written to ensure they represent end users rather than the opinion of the person writing the personas.

Her article addresses many of the roadblocks involved in introducing the concept of personas to a design team and how to work around those roadblocks. She covers the research needed to create useful personas, but she remains grounded in the real world where research — unfortunately — is often considered an expensive luxury, and describes how to make the best of it. And –very importantly — she makes a very useful distinction between designing for external websites and intranets. Her case for using personas is strong and I’m looking forward to trying to implement some of her techniques in our eLearning design. As she says in her conclusion:

Understanding the needs of users is one of the most critical success factors for any intranet or website project. Understanding these needs in a rapid fashion has arisen as project timelines have shortened and the pressure has mounted to deliver value early and often.
 
Personas allow you to identify and communicate user needs efficiently and effectively. By developing ‘stand in’ users, based on real user data, the design team can concentrate on designing for these archetypal users with the confidence that the needs of the broader user base will be met.

It’s rare to find such a useful article which is so grounded in the realities of day-to-day business needs and limitations. Check out some of the other articles generously offered for free on this site.
Via Headshift