Tool details
Personas
Fictional characters created to represent the different user types and their needs.
Tool category:
Tool thumbnail
When to use
When you want to understand and communicate the different target groups and their needs.
Why you should
Helps you target and identify the personalities of the users and how your design will influence their experience.
What you get
A representation of different user types that might use your service or product.
Steps to take
Do insight (interviews, observations etc.)
Analyse your findings
Try to group the different users by needs, jobs to be done, demographic etc.
Try to find characteristics for the different groups. This can be similar needs, the job to get done etc.
Make archetypes of the different target groups, presented as a person with description, needs and attributes.
Further reading
When you are creating personas you might be in the risk of being affected by biases and prejudgement of a certain type, so ensure that your personas are guidelines of some user characteristics, and that these are built on thorough insight work.