One recent morning I came into my office and found a small woman astride my desk.
Well, to be precise, it wasn’t an actual woman. It was a cardboard cutout of a photograph of a doll that represents an archetypal customer - a persona. My officemate had brought this odd item back for me from the CHI conference, and, knowing my extreme discomfort with this sort of tool, had left it for me as some sort of a gift.
I took a closer look at the effigy and recognized a familiar level of suspended realism seen in Barbie/G.I. Joe/Robot Chicken. Indeed, the doll maker had outfitted her with meticulously crafted accessories such as a digital watch, ID badge, CD-ROM, and Day-Timer.
And, frankly, it creeped the hell out of me …
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Hi,
I’ve recently blogged on this same topic. Here’s the link.
http://onproductmanagement.wordpress.com/2008/02/07/whats-the-deal-with-personas/
Would love to hear your comments.
Saeed
[…] follow up thought to the user personas discussion among Steve, Jared, Joshua, me, countless other people, and in particular to Peter Merholz’s thoughts […]
Steve makes a lot of sense in this article, but only after making one adjustment. His observation is not really about the flaws of personas as much as it is about flawed personas. He discusses problems as if they existed in every case where personas are used. I’ve worked with many large firms that successfully use personas. Yes, some persona efforts fail. But it’s usually because they are done incorrectly (sometimes without the appropriate research), not because personas are inherently flawed. Can a persona ever fully represent the intricacies of human beings? No. Is it better than most other alternatives for getting key people on the same page about customer needs? Yes.
And the debate goes on: Jared Spool gives his two cents, as a response to Josh Porter’s comments …
[…] the newest issue of Interactions magazine, Steve Portigal laments the use of personas. His point essentially is that personas “invite misuse” and therefore they should be avoided. […]
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[…] Research, Strategy, Tools, Trends. trackback Request a copy of Portigal Consulting new column: Persona Non Grata (link to ACM Interactions Publication). Check out their blog to see […]
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[…] complement its print edition. Contributors for the January and February volume include Don Norman, Steve Portigal on Personas, Elizabeth Churchill on “Idioms, Metaphors and Design”, and Hugh Dubberly on […]
Incidentally, the original article that describes the creation of these persona characters is available online in the Digital Library …