(Credit: NOIN Design via Figma)
What is a Persona?
Personas are fictional characters that are created before a design process to anticipate how an end user might interact with a service, product, website, in-APP official account and even a brand. Personas are distilled from the essences of real users and the goal is to remove assumptions about your users’ needs to create more effective user experiences.
Why are Personas Important?
Personas are very helpful to avoid many design pitfalls that can occur during the design process and promote better understanding of the end user.
Avoid Self-Referential Design
Design does not happen in a vacuum. Personas are important for designers to help them avoid self-referential design. This is a common design mistake where a designer designs a product for themselves when the target audience is very different.
Anticipate Unforeseen Reactions
Personas also help you to consider different points of view that can help you decide how a product will be perceived by certain customers. This can help your team come up with proactive solutions should any issues arise.
Build Empathy
Good design comes from connection with people. Building personas help designers think more deeply about their designs and how the end user will respond to it. This leads to more interaction and better user experiences. People react better when they feel that a company cares about their needs as a consumer and reacts accordingly.
Provide Marketing Direction
A good marketing campaign comes from the proper strategy that connects your brand with your target user. By knowing the different make up of your users, you are better able to reach out to them in their most comfortable mediums and with a perfect message constructed to connect with them on a deeper level.
An example of a persona used by an online bookstore to help them understand their customers better:
Great Personas,Β
Require Experience
Creating great personas takes time. The best way is to use past clients and your experiences with them to build realistic and engaging personas. Flow has worked on countless projects for over 15 years. We leverage our experience to build accurate personas that will help you focus on your design needs.
Contact FlowΒ for your design strategy.
