Personas create empathy through the story of a single person, temporarily suspending the complexity of other forms of consumer research so that design teams can focus on generating lots of innovative ideas. We believe that personas are most effective when focused on inspiring design ideas through the lens of boundary-pushing users. So, what is a bad persona? It’s easy for many designers or researchers to identify one when presented, but it’s not always clear what specifically makes a persona weak.Through this presentation, designers will be able to pinpoint missteps in the development process and refine the work to make it more successful. Here are the top six ways to screw up a design persona, along with ideas on how to make sure they’re inspiring:

1. Six Ways to Screw Up
a Design Persona

2. 1
Make it stereotypical

4. STEREOTYPE
TOO CONTRIVED
AVERAGE JOE
AUTHENTIC, BUT
UNINSPIRING
CHARACTER
INSPIRING AND
BELIEVABLE
SUPERHERO
UNBELIEVABLE

5. 2
Make it static

6. Never judge a person by his clothes or his act.
- Glenn O’Brien

7. TIME SPENT
FIGHTING/ROCKING
RICH FRANKLIN
ALICE COOPER
OTHER STUFF

8. TRANSITION
TIME SPENT
FIGHTING/ROCKING
RICH FRANKLIN
ALICE COOPER
TRANSITION
TEACHING

9. 3
Feel comfortable

12. 4
Speak generically

13. Joe Six-Pack < Joe the Plumber

14. “Anyone else noticed how Subaru is using The Pogues ‘If I
Should Fall From Grace?’ in their soccer mom commercial?
Maybe the rapture is right around the corner....”

15. 5
Lack detail

16. vs

18. 6
Match it to segmentation

19. vs

20. CONSUMER
SEGMENTS
DESIGN
TARGETS

21. 1 Make it stereotypical
2 Make it static
3 Feel comfortable
4 Speak generically
5 Lack detail
6 Match it to segmentation

22. 1 Be unique
2 Make it dynamic
3 Get out of your comfort zone
4 Use an authentic voice
5 Detail to explore
6 Complement segments