In the UX space, personas are often seen as a must-have. Clients frequently approach us with an eagerness to develop personas, and it’s easy to understand why: they’re a familiar UX deliverable that promises to centre users in the design process. But creating personas alone won't magically make a project user-focused. Without clear objectives and robust research, personas can do more harm than good, oversimplifying users into broad, and often inaccurate, categories.
Where Personas Fall Short
While personas have their merits, their effectiveness hinges on solid research and a well-defined purpose. Too often, they morph into exaggerated stereotypes that fail to reflect real people. Take the well-known comparison of King Charles and Ozzy Osbourne. Both are white, British men born in 1948, live in castles, have been married twice, and enjoy wealth and fame - but their lives, values, and preferences are worlds apart.
Instead of eliminating biases, personas can introduce new ones. For instance, diversity attributes are sometimes included in ways that lack authenticity or insight. A persona might label a user as 'colour-blind', but if there's no understanding of how this influences their interactions, it fails to foster empathy or meaningful design.
Another common pitfall is the inclusion of irrelevant details. How many persona profiles have you seen that mention someone’s grocery store of choice, weekend hobbies, or pet preferences? While these may add color, they rarely inform how someone interacts with a product or service. Overloading personas with trivialities often results in them being ignored—or worse, reinvented annually, wasting resources.
Making Personas Work for Your Project
If you decide to use personas, start by asking, "what is their purpose?" Are they meant to guide development teams through user journeys? Shape a marketing strategy? Keep stakeholders aligned? When the end goal is clear, it’s much easier to strip away unnecessary details and focus on what’s truly useful.
Once the purpose is defined, the next step is engaging with real users. Conducting interviews with at least five individuals per target group is a great starting point. While time-consuming, these conversations provide insights that workshops or assumptions simply can’t replicate.
Are There Better Alternatives?
In many cases, yes - other tools can often achieve your goals more effectively.
If you’re looking to understand website visitors, a combination of user interviews and analytics might be a better fit. Analytics can reveal key details like device preferences, navigation habits, and behavioural trends. Or, if you’re designing specific pages, mapping user flows or customer journeys can focus on real behaviours rather than static characteristics.
These approaches emphasise what users do, rather than who they are, offering a more dynamic and actionable view of their needs.
Empathy in Action: Beyond Personas
While personas can help teams start thinking about users, genuine empathy stems from direct interaction. Watching a usability test or sitting in on live interviews with actual users can do far more to build understanding than any persona document.
Ultimately, personas are just one tool in the UX toolkit. Before jumping into their creation, pause to ask: What do we really need to learn? and Which approach will yield those insights? Personas, at their best, are only a springboard—the real value lies in the actionable user insights that guide meaningful decisions.
Need Help Understanding Your Users?
If you're looking to dive deeper into your audience's needs and how your website can better support their decision-making, connect with Freestyle’s talented UX team. We're here to help!
