Personas & Scenarios

“Personas are fictional characters, which you create based upon your research in order to represent the different user types that might use your service, product, site, or brand in a similar way. Creating personas will help you to understand your users’ needs, experiences, behaviours and goals.” ( Dam, Siang, 2019)

Personas are a vital aspect in the development phase of a user interface (UI) as user needs are at the forefront of the design decisions made when creating the interface. Persona’s outline the user’s goals and capabilities when using the application. Once personas are developed it is important to define scenarios in order to prioritize features of the application in the development phase. Persona and scenarios offer an inexpensive option when analysing the proposed UI.

By placing emphasis on the expectations of the user through the use of personas and scenarios optimal placement of content can be achieved which support the aim of the project. This allows for the development of a successful and user friendly UI. “Personas help product development teams arrive at design solutions that better address the needs and preferences of all audience segments. Personas offer insights that can lead to improved functionality and a better experience for both industrial design as well as interface design.” (Liquid Agency , 2014)

Initial research was carried out into the target audience and intended end user of “Let’s Talk” when developing the personas for the project. In depth research was carried out in order to collect as much knowledge possible about the intended end user to create an accurate representation of the user when developing personas for the application. Detailed descriptions of the end user were then developed. Following the development of the personas, scenarios were created in order to outline the possible solutions the application can provide by creating real life scenarios that feature the persona in the role of the user.