User Personas

What are Personas?

Personas are used in industry to help focus on user needs in the product development process by bringing statistical and other user data to life. Personas are endowed with backgrounds, personalities, and visual identities, as well as functional characteristics that represent the diversity of customers and potential customers.

Adam

Adam is a 28 year-old co-owner of an internet marketing business and a self-confessed techie. He has used a wheelchair since 1994, when he sustained a spinal cord injury in a diving accident.

Brett

Brett is a 19-year old male who sustained a brain injury from a car accident in high school. He wants to spend more independent time with his friends, but his mother worries about what can happen when she isn't with him to help keep track of things.

Cindy

Cindy is legally blind and lives with a roommate who is also blind. She recently invested in a screenless mobile phone based on the advice of her peers, whom she finds more reliable than wireless retail staff for technical information.

Dana

Dana is 35 years of age and has a significant sensorineural hearing loss. She uses a text messenger with voice capabilities, which she uses for instant-messaging with deaf friends and for talking with others.

Della

Della sustained a mild stroke several years ago that affected her mobility, speech, and manual abilities. Never a big fan of cell phones, Della admits that she uses it much more than she used to.

Herb

Herb is a 48-year-old former Air Force pilot with mild hearing limitations. He is highly savvy about technology and has little tolerance for products that don’t accommodate his physical and hearing limitations as he gets older.

Jack

Jack is a 62 year-old man who has a progressive neuromuscular disease. Jack considers a mobile phone a good idea for people with disabilities who want freedom to get around by themselves.

Mary

Mary is 84 years old and legally blind. Her family has pointed out that a mobile phone could enable Mary and her husband Sal to be located in an emergency and to receive emergency alerts. But she finds them hard to use.

Jack