Our Methodology for Developing User Personas

We mold user research to drive extraordinary creative results through the development of a "persona." A user persona (also called a UX persona) is a fictional character created to represent a particular market segment. This character is given a name, picture, biography, and personality. Sandstorm uses personas in the same way that an actor looks at a role. Before deciding on a creative direction for the UX design concepts, questions are posed related to a specific persona's motivation, needs, and biases to guarantee the usability of a particular website or application.

persona development example

Personas provide a noticeable advantage by creating a face to represent an entire group, and can be an ideal to way gather content and functional requirements, and prioritize features. It can be difficult considering a whole audience's point of view, but from the perspective of a persona (or a face to represent an entire group), it makes the audience seem more real.

Our UX and creative team ask the question "What would Rita do?" instead of "What would a pediatrician, 37–58 years old, with a private practice, 15+ years experience, living on the West coast, do?" Personas result in a user experience designed for the user.

Our methodology for developing user personas: 

  1. Identify initial audiences and possible scenarios
  2. Write protocol for the research (may include in-depth user research, surveys, card sorting, participatory design, etc.)
  3. Schedule participants, mock the study with the moderator and note taker
  4. Conduct research to gather insights to validate initial beliefs or discover new audiences and scenarios
  5. Analyze results, build personas and list of scenarios
  6. Use personas as references for recruiting participants for usability testing 
  7. Design the UX from the user personas, scenarios, and usability research results  

To see how UX persona development differs from traditional demographics, request a proposal on user persona development today.

Sandy Marsico a light skinned female with blonde shoulder length hair wearing a teal top smiling at the camera
Sandy Marsico
Founder & CEO

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