Any product, service, solution…etc. development is done by a design team that goes through a design thinking process in order to come up with the desired output. But the question is desired by whom?. A design thinking process is an iterative problem-solving process that is based on human-centered design. (Han 2022) and consists of six phases that can be summarized as following:
personas basically answer the question of “by whom is the product desired and why”. They are fictional characters created by the design team to narrow down their potential users in order to refine the users and goals of a certain product, the thing that will help them create something that is accessible and satisfies the customers needs. In fact the idea of personas was initially created by marketing in the mid 90s (Costa 2017). But now it’s introduced early, in the second phase of the design thinking process “ The define phase” and by doing so, it acts as a
checklist for the designers as they are targeting a specific segment of people from the start which actually facilitates the product marketing process.
For me I’ve found the concept of personas to be extremely helpful because I am interested in not only designing but in the commercialization of my designed products as well. That’s why I had initially created the following personas for my “cymatics and sound visualization” project ideas.
But then I have started refining them as following:
References
Costa, Rebeka. 2017. “Personas, Scenarios, User Stories and Storyboards: What’s the Difference?” Justinmind.com. 2017. https://www.justinmind.com/blog/user-personas-scenarios-user-stories-and-storyboards-whats-the-difference/.
Davidson, Matt. n.d. “Design Thinking for EDiscovery – ProSearch.” Prosearch. https://www.prosearch.com/design-thinking-for-ediscovery/.
Gohier, Aurelien. 2017. “The Future of Marketing: The CPO, Chief Personas Officer.” BtoB Marketing & Sales. February 10, 2017. https://btobmarketingsales.com/the-future-of-marketing-the-cpo-chief-personas-officer/.
Han, Esther. 2022. “What Is Design Thinking & Why Is It Important? | HBS Online.” Business Insights Blog. January 18, 2022. https://online.hbs.edu/blog/post/what-is-design-thinking.
