who ARE the users?

The purpose of Personas is to put a face and a name to the vague and mysterious "users." With a persona representing each category of users, designers can communicate clearly with each other about interface goals, user preferences and priorities.

In this, our first real use of Personas, we created a detailed personality for each of 6 people (developed from interviews with customers, support personnel, etc). Details about their pet peeves on the job, a day in their life, and insights into their personal lives made each Persona more believable.

Copyright 2006 Mercury Interactive Corporation