How To Create A User Persona (Video Guide)

Hi I'm Cicely Rose a student advisor here at CareerFoundry today I'm going to talk you through a very important part of the design process user personas first I'll explain exactly what a user persona is then we'll look at why user personas are necessary and how they help you design awesome products I'll then show you how to define your own user personas following a simple step by step process by the end of this video you'll understand the role that user personas play in the UX design process and you'll have a method you can follow to create

your own ready let's begin so what exactly is a user persona quite simply a persona is a fictional but realistic portrayal of a target user for your product each persona represents an entire group or audience of users as a UX designer you'll start the design process by conducting user research building empathy with your target users and identifying exactly what they need from the product you're designing a user persona embodies everything you learn from the research phase user needs and goals behavior patterns pain points and any noteworthy user characteristics you'll present your persona in a document

like the example shown on the screen right now you can include an image and a made-up name together with fictional details that help to build up your persona and make them feel real if you're designing a holiday booking app for example you might mention that your persona loves luxury spa retreats but hates all-inclusive dining you will also add demographic information based on factual data gathered as part of your use of research quotes from real users can also help to paint a vivid picture of your target user now we know what our persona is let's consider

why you need one in the first place UX design is all about solving a real user problem but you can't do that until you've established a clear problem statement to write a meaningful problem statement you first need to understand your use and their needs whether you're developing an app a website or a service it's crucial to understand who will be using it a user persona clarifies exactly who you're designing for it acts as a point of reference throughout the entire process making sure that every single feature or function you design is done so with the

user in mind personas help with strategizing and making smart design decisions they make real users memorable for the product team helping to focus efforts and build empathy a persona helps to answer the following questions who is my ideal user or customer what behavior patterns do my users currently exhibit what are the needs and goals of my users what issues and pain points do they currently face within the given context so in a nutshell user personas are crucial if you want to design something that's useful desirable and valuable to your target audience a solid user persona

is your Northstar guiding your design decisions from start to finish not only that most designers work in multidisciplinary teams where it's important to communicate your findings from the user research stage personas encompass all the essential details about your users presenting them in a memorable way that everyone can understand not just designers so you must get your personas right and I'm going to show you how with introductions out of the way let's get stuck into the persona defining process we've broken it down into four simple steps and I'm going to talk you through each one you'll

have a fully formed persona in no time before you can start defining your user personas you'll need to have conducted plenty of research your persona needs to represent real human users after all so you need to have gathered sufficient quantitative and qualitative data you will organize all this information into persona groups that represent your ideal customers these persona groups will then be consolidated into single user personas and that's what we'll focus on shortly a word of advice when dividing up your data into persona groups remember to focus on the major needs of the most important

user group you can't be everything to everyone so don't even try do one thing and do it well in other words focus on one specific user group and one significant pain point so you've got your user groups and you're ready to turn them into user personas open up a blank word doc and let's get started the first step in the process is to add a header to your persona this includes a fictional name an image and a quote that summarizes what matters most to your persona in relation to your product so the foundations of your

persona might go something like this named Savannah Rodriguez image this cheerful looking stock lady summary quote take me to undiscovered holiday destinations away from the tourist traps this first step might seem simple but these features ensure that your persona is memorable keeping the design team focused on who they're designing for now we're going to add some factual detail to your persona we're going to add a demographic profile demographic details are based on user research and the demographic profile of your persona can be divided into four main sections personal background professional background user environment and psychographics

the personal background section includes details such as age gender education persona group and family status so if Savannah's personal background might look something like this Savannah 52 years old divorced mother of two has a master's degree in chemistry professional background includes details such as professional occupation income level and work experience here we might add that Savannah works full-time at a pharmaceuticals company and earns around 65,000 per year next you'll add details regarding the user environment the user environment represents the physical social and technological context of the user the purpose of this section is to answer

questions such as what technological devices do users have access to do they spend most of their time in a corporate office or at home how often do we collaborate with others so Savannah's user environment could be in her office mostly on a laptop but also on her iPad when commuting to and from work then we come to the psychographic section this is where you're linked with details such as the users attitudes interests motivations and pain points creating a psychographic profile enables you to better understand why your user behaves in a certain way including why they

use your product let's continue to imagine you're designing a holiday booking app some useful psychographic information to include in your user persona could be Savannah enjoys luxurious pirate Ruiz hates tourist traps appreciates an element of exclusivity enjoys trying open tech local cuisine prefers to travel alone or with one other person tends to favor quality over economy can you see how your user persona is starting to come to life creating a demographic profile adds a layer of realism to your persona which makes it easier to fill that all-important empathy when designing for their needs the next

step in the process is to add some information about the users end goals the end goal is the motivating factor that inspires action and focuses on what the users want or need to accomplish when using your product so in Savannah's case her end goal when using your holiday booking app is to discover and book luxurious off-the-beaten-track holiday destinations the fourth and final step when defining a user persona is to add a scenario the scenario is the day in the life narrative that describes how your persona would interact with your product in a particular context to

achieve their end goal when writing a scenario define when where and how the narrative takes place and write it from the personas perspective for example Savannah's scenario could start off like this at least once a year I like to go away on a luxury holiday I tried to discover places I've never been to before and to stick to destinations that aren't yet overrun with tourists I work full time so I don't have that much time to browse and book each individual element of my holiday ideally I'll find some kind of package deal that comes with

local restaurant recommendations so there you have it your kickstart guide to defining a user persona when creating user personas remember to focus on the context of the product you're designing while you do want to build up a realistic character there's no need to include pointless details that won't influence the final design if you're designing a holiday booking app it doesn't make sense to include information on Savannah's favorite TV programs or what football team she supports so only include details that serve a design purpose if you enjoyed this video don't forget to subscribe to our YouTube

channel and remember you'll find loads more information over on the CareerFoundry blog thanks for watching see you next time