Experimenting with non-human personas and UX

Non-human personas represent the lifeforms indirectly impacted by a product’s lifecycle, but how might a solo UX designer use them with little budget or access to experts?

Non-human personas represent the lifeforms impacted by a product’s lifecycle, but how might a solo UX designer use them, with little time or budget for expert involvement, to inform UX decisions to reduce the negative environmental and social impacts of digital products?

Non-humans personas represent invisible humans, lifeforms, and natural environments impacted by a product’s lifecycle. They may represent a real person or a persona group. They may be a combination of fictional representations and scientific data.

Non-human personas can be a specific lifeform directly impacted by a product/business, a complex environment, or a generalised representation of Nature.

Environment stakeholder examples:

• Vegetation (trees, forests, swamps, etc.)
• Water systems (oceans, lakes, rivers, freshwater)
• Air
• Soil
• Climate and weather
• Landforms (mountains, hills, etc.)