"Persona" design - concept and practice

"Persona" design

InterestMatrix™ can help designers and marketers to create a concept of "Persona" - the ultimate psychographic profile of the customer.

"Personas are fictitious characters that are created to represent the different user types within a targeted demographic that might use a site or product. Personas are most often used as part of a user-centered design process for designing software or online applications, in which the goals, desires, and limitations of the user are considered when designing the product. They are also considered a part of interaction design (IxD). Personas are useful in helping to guide decisions about a product, such as features, interactions, and visual design." (From Wikipedia)
Read more about a concept of "persona" in Wikipedia

The idea of "Persona Design" was invented by Allan Cooper in his famous book The "Inmates Are Running the Asylum ". Visit Allan Cooper's website and read articles about "persona" in his Journal here.

How to create and use Persona

1. Usability.gov - information on usability and user-centered design.

Blogs and discussions about implementing Persona design

1. Buyer Persona Blog
2. The Cranky Product Manager
3. Product Personas

Books about Persona design

1. Cooper, Alan. The Inmates are Running the Asylum. SAMS, 1999. ISBN 0-672-31649-8
2. Pruitt, John & Adlin, Tamara. The Persona Lifecycle : Keeping People in Mind Throughout Product Design. Morgan Kaufmann, 2006. ISBN 0-12-566251-3
3. Getting the Most Out of Personas For Product Usability Enhancements. Springer Berlin / Heidelberg, 2007. ISBN 0302-9743 (Print) 1611-3349 (Online)