MY INTRO TO PERSONAS … a UX Design Tool

It’s the 2nd week of our UX Design class with 2020Shift and we’re in the process of learning how to synthesize data and build PERSONAS.

Our case study for the week centered around designing an MTA travel app for Millennials. We were given the task of conducting a series of USER INTERVIEWS to discover more about our target population.

In UX design the focus is always on the user:

“How do they feel…”

“What are their habits…”

“How do they discover things…”

“How do they problem solve…”

“What motivates them…”

“What do they value...”

By spending time with users and hearing their stories we gained rich testimonials to better inform our designs.

TIP: Its more cost effective to find out what users actually want before you spend time and money building product.

Once we had all of our data, we began the process of data synthesization. It’s interesting that in an increasingly digitized world one of the most pivotal tools for innovation is a throw back to analog days: The Post It Note.

So we took our information and transcribed it to stacks of Post-Its. An array of neon sticky notes were soon sprawled across all of our desks. This technique is called “Spacialization” — the process of taking your information and making it physical. It helps UX Designers to experience the data differently. We were able to sort through, group, prioritize and create connections we may not have seen otherwise.

From the connections we found in the data synthesization process we could now start to build PERSONAS. In essence the persona is an Archetype of a company’s primary users. Used as a communication tool between the various front-end and back-end designers on the team. It is a way to bring all the data to life and remind the team that ultimately there is a person with wants, needs and frustrations who is using your product or service to make life better.

Personas are a key part of UX methodology. They can be outlined in a variety of ways and usually consist of the following aspects : photo, name, tag line, relevant demographics, occupation, back story, needs, motivations and wants.

Here are some samples of User Personas I found useful and am using as references for our upcoming class presentation: