kuniform

Kim Goodwin of Cooper has a great article entitled Taking Personas Too Far that is worth the read. She gives a good high level overview of the research efforts, data points, persona format and communication techniques while reviewing some of the strangeness that has developed in industry around personas. Some examples include creating living rooms for personas or having someone pose as the persona.

Activities like these smack of people unfamiliar with the process of software design and the purpose of personas busying themselves to mollify executives freaked out at the touchy feely design activities going on around them. Why do I say that? In 1999, I often slept on the couch of a teenage persona who’s room we’d created in an effort to sell our client’s startup dream to potential investors. Few things are as surreal as seeing a teenage girl’s bedroom as recreated by the efforts of a bunch of Ivy League MBAs.