As part of the development of the staff and student websites, the Web Transformation Project team has developed a series of personas that will help us to crystallise our research for these sites.
The personas are all available for you to view on the Web Transformation Project Wiki.
What are personas?
Personas are archetypal users of an intranet or website that represent the needs of larger groups of users, in terms of their goals and personal characteristics. They act as ‘stand-ins’ for real users and help guide decisions about functionality and design.
Personas identify the user motivations, expectations and goals responsible for driving online behaviour, and bring users to life by giving them names, personalities and often a photo.
Although personas are fictitious, they are based on knowledge of real users. Some form of user research is conducted before they are written to ensure they represent end users rather than the opinion of the person writing the personas.
Benefits of creating personas
Personas enable intranet and website teams to stand in their users’ shoes. They focus the design effort on supporting user goals, rather than being driven by the ideas of team members or senior executives.
Personas can be used to:
- build empathy
- develop focus
- provide context and motivation regarding goals, behaviours and beliefs of a particular group
- act as a vehicle for bringing customer goals and behavioural data to life.
- communicate and form consensus
- make and defend decisions
- measure effectiveness.
Personas are a tool, not a solution
“… personas are an essential part of what constitutes the goal-directed process… personas, though important, are never used in isolation, but rather are implemented in conjunction with other processes, concepts and methods that support and augment their use.”
Although personas have many benefits, they alone will not ensure the success of an intranet or website. The goals of the business must also be considered, because if the website or intranet does not meet business needs, then the solution is not a viable one.
Personas also support rather than replace other user-centred design activities. It is still important to conduct task analysis to understand the detailed tasks your intranet or website is to accommodate. There is still value in usability testing the site, and many user-centred design activities are conducted to gather input into the personas, such as user interviewing and observation.