Think like a persona.

Personas are design tools that allow designers to explore a product through the eyes of a user. A persona is not an archetypal user: they are an imaginary actual user, who happens to sit right in the middle of the target audience design space.

The success of personas depends on their believability, and hence the extent to which we can get inside their mind and see systems from their perspective.

One approach is to act out the persona, to bring them to life, much as one would do in a theatre production. Sam Tyler, Maximus Decimus Meridius, Lovejoy, Mrs Merton – all characters, all with vivid life and attitudes and approaches.

When trying to act like a persona, as well as reading the persona profile and looking at their picture, try to think about the following issues:

• What sort of person am I? Happy, sad, depressed, frustrated, lively, manic, friendly, nervous, polite?
• What’s my education been? How much do I know? How much do I understand the world, and my job, and computers?
• What do I have to achieve today? What are the problems in my job – technical, social, political?
• How do I feel? What mood am I in?

Think about how you would speak, walk, move – the “quotes” from the person are often revealing.

Then go to the system, start it up and use it – trying to stay in character – and then document what you feel/think/like/dislike – as that character. You can document things after the fact, or as you go along, and can use pen and paper, a computer, or voice recording and transcribe it later. The more you describe both how it’s working, what you expect, and how you feel about it, the better.

Remember, what you think is immaterial – it’s what the character thinks that we’re after.

Personas can also be used to communicate ideas in the design team: “Rachel wouldn’t like that: she’s not got the web at home and so isn’t familiar with blocking popups” is a much more convincing argument than “I don’t like popups”.