One of the most important tools in the UX design process is personas. It is an archetype of users with characteristics that define a large audience. Their creation makes it possible to tailor a product or service to specific recipients, applying an analysis of their behavior, skills or motivations. Why is Buyer Persona so Important for Businesses? You will find out in the article below.
Buyer Persona — What is it?
Personas are user profiles that represent representation of the wants and needs of your target group. They help analyze the ideal customer — their behavior, skills, goals, problems, and general information.
Thanks to personas, it is possible to identify the thought patterns and motives of the audience, which in turn makes it easier to establish contact with a group of customers and make specific decisions related to products. Each project team has the opportunity to use this information during the activities carried out. It makes the creation of products and services It is focused on the needs of the audience.
Buyer Persona/User Persona — what should they look like?
A Buyer Persona or User Persona profile is a presentation of the target audience. Today help with decision makingrelating to products, services and marketing. It provides an opportunity to understand the results of user research, which makes it easier to present the expectations of the recipient.
The information that is assigned to persons depends on the chosen context — some of them, such as needs and desires, are essential. Others, such as location and gender — may not matter at all. Currently, when creating a Buyer Persona and User Persona, demographic data are not fully taken into account, which - admittedly - allow you to know the customer, but they are information too general and of low value.
A modern persona profile should contain information, specifying:
- goals,
- intentions,
- the ability to get closer to the recipient.
Their definition is intended to make it possible to understand who users are, how they interact and how they use the service or product. This is valuable data for the entrepreneur who can take action to improve the product.
The user's persona — what should it not look like?
The User/Buyer Persona used to include information such as:
- sample photo,
- first name,
- age,
- place of origin/residence,
- workstation,
- level of education,
- marital status and family
- identification of problems,
- determination of needs,
- character traits
- the most used social media channels.
Demographics in building user personas are currently not necessary. Why? The most important thing is to know how users feel — how they think and use your product or service, which is problematic and frustrating for them. In this case, age, gender and other demographics may be imprecise. They are often the cause of making assumptions or biases.
Creating a person should be individually for each existing case. If you want to familiarize yourself with the needs of people, to understand the need to introduce new product features — gender is not important, and even — it can lead to bias.
What is posted in people's profiles can determine the assumptions that people make when they are with people from their real environment. This results in a limitation of the effectiveness of the persons in collecting information about the needs and desires of the users.
Buyer Persona — how to create it right?
So how can you tell if your personas are useful and well constructed? To begin with, discard thinking that there is only one way to create them. There are a lot of these ways and they need to be selected individually.
Personas in UX design: what are they for?
Why are Buyer Persona and UX Persona so important when designing websites or mobile apps?
Making the right decisions
User personas are primarily helpful to companies that want to make informed decisions. They visualize what is important to the client and what exactly he needs.
Personas make it easy determining the product strategy, determining the most important functionalities and solutions. In combination with another type UX research and products (e.g. usability testing or customer survey) allow you to focus on user needs and determine the direction of action.
Creating personas gives you the opportunity to see which changes will have a positive impact on most customers. There are certainly product areas that are of interest to more than one user - perhaps it is on their development that the focus should be.
Empathy and understanding of users
The creation of Persona is intended to evoke empathy and make it easier for designers to understand the users of the product. This allows you to see a slightly different perspective and focus on the needs of the end user.
A UX designer can easily fall into the trap of creating digital solutions — without taking into account the requirements and desires of the audience. Persona makes it possible empathize with issues and understand how they affect the interaction with the product. UX and Buyer Persona are representatives of real people. They collect information about attitudes, habits, tastes, as well as problems.
Matching project teams
Personas are a great way to easily communicate research results to individual teams that do not have contact with the end user. They are easy to remember and disseminate to different project groups in your organization. Researchers spend a lot of energy and time listening to research participants. Communicating further findings is a step essential for building user personas.
Each group has the task of developing a certain work management strategy - marketing team, product team, developers, etc. Everyone must be sure that the strategy of action Consistent with the expectations of the rest of the organization. This can ensure accurate and smooth development and implementation of functions.
UX and Buyer Persona are designed to ensure that each team operates according to the same customer information. You cannot rely on your own interpretation and assumptions. The company should be sure that Everyone understands the meaning of people., which will translate into positive business results.
Creating a buyer persona — what does it look like?
Creating a persona usually takes place in several steps:
Collection of information
Personas should be created on the basis of statistical data, interviews, or — ideally — research. If you do not have access to this information, you should contact project stakeholders who can help gather the necessary data.
Hypothesis creation
All the information that manages to be collected is used to determine the behavior patterns of customers.
- After completing the research, it is necessary to write out the differences in the behavior of users.
- Appropriate variables must be assigned to each user.
- The next step is to find a group of people who focus within several variables. This will be the basic outline of the user.
Acceptance of hypotheses
At this stage, hypotheses about differences between users should be rejected or accepted.
Number of persons
It is important for every company to determine how many people are really needed in a given project and to prioritize them. For large projects, users should divide into segmentsbecause some of the elements may be mutually exclusive.
Descriptions of persons
The last step is to optimally describe the person. Every user should be able to understand them. Remember that Buyer Persona is created from real patterns. The result of the description of the persona should be detailed throughout the duration of the project. It is worth updating them if necessary.
Buyer Persona — why use it?
The specifics of the work makes web designers mainly focus on the use of a product or site. Creating a Buyer Persona or UX Persona allows in turn Understanding User Expectations, as well as their behavior on the website.
Thanks to this, it is possible to optimize the site to increase conversions.
The information provided is tailored to the user's needs at different times of browsing the website. This makes it possible to introduce him More appropriate solutions for him — whether it is getting acquainted with new functionalities or selling services or products. The basis of success is the combination of content with an understanding of the customer's journey.
Personas are needed in the design process especially at the moment when you can relate to a given scenario. It is a situation that describes the way the customer's input to interact with a pre-defined context. This is to help you understand user flows. Planning user journey can be helpful due to the different emotional states of users that accompany them as they travel around the site. Highlighting problematic moments makes it easier to find a solution to obstacles.
People — who should be considered?
A lion's share of entrepreneurs wonder which person is the most important — you shouldn't think of it that way. To strengthen the company's strategy, kombinera ett concept av flere personalisering med UX personalisering, which will help you tailor your offer to a wider range of people with specific interests and behaviors.
Optimized strategies that address both content and visual page use both Buyer Persona and UX Persona to help build customer engagement and trust. This can directly affect the increase in the chance of achieving the set goal.
A Buyer Persona és una de los elementos que ayuda create a strong relationship between brand and consumer. If you include UX Persona for this — you will get an additional opportunity to meet user expectations and increase conversions.
If you want to know more about the ways that will allow you to grow your business — check altri articoli, available on the blog. Need help with UX design, usability audits or web analytics? Kontakt oss!
