Remark: Persona as a term is used in many ways, sometimes it refers to the description of a real person, especially if this person is very relevant as user for the future system. Sometimes it refers to a fiktive, constructed user description that was developed out of a context of use analysis involving many real persons. Sometimes the term “real persona” is used in opposite to “abstrakt or fictive persona”.
For SAMS, part of our context of use analysis is, to describe real beekeepers and other potential users of future SAMS software and hardware. This description is then used to create personas that describe the user for the implementations.
Please Note: In strict definition of the International Usability and UX Qualification board (uxqb) a persona is never a real person. So be aware of this fact when speaking to an expert familiar with this definitions to avoid misunderstandings.
A description of a user and what he or she intends to do when using an interactive system.
Notes of CPUX-UR Curriculum (uxqb.org):
1. Personas are not real; rather they are examples invented to represent real users based on empirically determined data, for example from observations or interviews.
2. Personas typically have a name, age, some background information, goals and desires. A persona description should include information about the persona’s knowledge about and interest in the subject matter of the interactive system. Persona descriptions often but not always include a photo.
3. Personas provide a “face” for the users, so that all project members have a good idea of who the users of the interactive system will be, which characteristics they have, what motivates them and what goals they have.
4. There are primary and secondary personas. Primary personas represent the main target user groups, whereas secondary personas provide insight into further goals or characteristics that are also relevant for the derivation of user requirements but would overload the descriptions of primary personas.
5. Personas based on assumptions are called proto-personas. Lean UX uses proto-personas. They can be used as a starting point for a model-based context of use analysis.
6. So-called anti-personas can be used to represent users for whom the interactive system is explicitly not designed.
Quality factors for the development of personas:
1. A persona is created by those people who performed the context of use analysis.
2. The persona description does not represent a real person, but is equivalent to the description of a real person.
3. The persona combines characteristics of real users.
4. The persona description contains all important characteristics and the most important goals.
5. The basis for a persona must be empirical data, it must not be purely imaginary.
6. Proto-personas must be clearly labelled as such.
7. The number of personas should be 2 to 5 maximum, to be able to efficiently work with them.
8. Personas as representations of real users must be checked regularly and modified if necessary, as the context of use can change over time.
9. The responsibility for the creation, quality and maintenance of personas lies with the product team, even if the personas were initially created by others (e.g. an agency). It must be assured that all context of use information on which the creation and maintenance of personas is based remains available to the product team.
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