Personas, Words, Characters: Containers for Meaning

Personas are basically a composite of multiple people — an expressive container for insights collected through research about individuals that collected and developed to help design teams empathize and assume the perspective of the users they hope to serve.

Personas are a lot like words. They are conventions that are developed through a process of observation and experimentation of use to increase intelligibility and maximize efficiency of communication. However, some words become clichés, so pervasively used as to hollow out all substance of meaning except for the letters themselves.

Personas are also like fictional characters in a story. While at times they are based on a single individual, they are usually based on some amalgamation of a type or types of persons based on an authors experience. Good characters have depth, a presence, and a set of principles the audience can relate with. They might even be able to anticipate how a character will react to an event. Yet, similar to words characters run the risk of becoming a caricature or even a stereo type, diminishing the illusion of authenticity and actually getting in the way of the narrative.

In all three cases of language, characters personas — they are merely short hands for understanding the actual things; but are not the actual things in and of themselves. They are models; models that are all wrong but can be useful if approached thoughtfully. A useful model takes time, effort, and attention to develop a refined degree of verisimilitude; a not so useful model is far easier to accomplish — at best it’s a stepping stone to future learning, at worst it can be completely detrimental.

A few guidelines to developing models with integrity — especially personas

Acknowledge what you know — challenge it

Acknowledge what you don’t know — figure it out

Detach from the outcome

Talk with as many people as you possible can. Learn from them, be curious, let them speak, ask them to “say more”

Socialize what you’ve learned with a diversified team and people you trust (especially the ones you disagree with)

Iterate. Each iteration is a prototype for you to learn through and receive feedback

Be specific, but not too specific

Reflect on memorable characters, both real and fictional — what makes a relatable, authentic character?