Complexity: Low
Time required: 2 hours
Material required: pen
References: Nesta’s DIY Toolkit, diytoolkit.org
What is it for?
Personas are fictional characters who embody the archetype of your customer, beneficiary or financing supporter. They are created through exhaustive observation of the customer segment and the drawing together of their shared characteristics, behaviors, motivations, interests, etc. It is a useful tool to really focus on getting to know who you are designing for.
How to use it?
The goal of the activity is to make the persona as accurate as possible and hence as detailed and nuanced as can be. Start by giving your persona a name and identifying from which customer segment s/he comes from. Then move on to describing who s/he is: age, personal background, education level, profession, etc. Now, make a sketch of your persona (remember you can always take a picture and use photo to sketch technology if you can’t draw). Move on to the other sections in any order you’d like and feel free to add more details!
