Personas are a powerful method for keeping a focus on your target audience throughout the design process. However, despite the increasing popularity of the persona method, it is still very hard to find good information on how to create and employ personas. User Intelligence, together with its partner Snitker & Co joined hands to organize a course on Personas in Amsterdam.
Lene Nielsen is the only person in the world to have written a PhD on personas. She has researched, worked, developed and lectured on personas since 1997. User Intelligence invited her to give a workshop in Amsterdam.
The workshop 10 steps to personas took place on the 28th of august and attracted a group of 15 participants with varying backgrounds and levels of experience. Among them were several independent professionals and academics.
In the workshop a brief history of personas was given and Lene Nielsen presented her method of creating personas (10 steps method). Two practical exercises focused on creating a persona and writing specific scenarios for this persona. During the day Lene discussed some of her projects and the workshop participants shared some of their own experiences with personas. This allowed the group to recognize common pitfalls and share best practices.
The workshop offered something for everybody. It was both useful for participants who wanted to start working with personas and participants who already had used personas in their own projects.
When Lene asked the participants what they found the most useful points from the workshop, several remarked:
- Viewing personas not just as a deliverable, but as a process is key to their success
- Several techniques used in the construction of personas can be used to create buy-in from stakeholders
- Scenarios are an important part of the Persona method. They can be used both for revealing problems and conceptualizing new opportunities and solutions.
The workshop was well-received by the participants. It is possible a follow-up, more advanced course will follow.