Reinventing the persona

Who doesn’t love dunking on personas? After all, it’s one of the most misused and misunderstood design frameworks out there. Alan Cooper is credited as the father of the user persona — Kathy being the first in 1983. Rather than keeping this a secret weapon, Alan decided to share his framework in his infamous book, The Inmates Are Running the Asylum.

Personas were so simple, clear, and powerful that it seemed only a matter of time before other practitioners discovered it for themselves. — Alan Cooper