I've found personas to be a very effective tool. That said, I've seen them done incorrectly and fail more often than not: They are too verbose, they are not realistic (no grounding in user research), there are too many of them for a project, they change radically from release to release, they are driven by marketing desires rather than actual users, primary personas are not clearly identified for features, etc.
Personas are a tool for focusing discussions. Good personas provide consensus across a team on who a product is being built for; they are concise and memorable. They should be based in research, but I've found even a minimally validated persona is better than no persona at all. Personas should evolve over time as more information is learned and the market changes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=39645 ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [email protected] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
