Ux design is all about solving a real user problem. To do that you will need a clear problem statement which entails understanding your users and their needs. At the end of this article you will have an in-depth understanding of;

1. The user persona and what exactly does it mean.
2. Why do you need them?
3. How do you create them?

What Exactly is a Users Persona.

A user persona is a fictional but realistic portrait of a target user product (The person that will be using your product). The user persona clarifies who you are defining for. They help with strategizing and making smart decisions like:

1. Who is my ideal user?
2. What behavior patterns do my users currently exhibit?
3. What are the needs and goals of my users?
4. What frustrations and pain points are they currently facing within a given context.

A user persona is useful if you want to design anything that is useful, valuable, and desirable to your target audience. So as a designer you need to present your user persona in such a memorable way everyone can understand and not just designers alone.

Why Do You Need Them?

A user persona allows designers to be able to navigate design and feature decisions that meet the need of your ideal user.

How Do You Create a User Persona?

Research Is used to understand the shared behaviors and needs amongst your product users.

I suggest you speak to 3 users per product type. You should also consider conducting moderate sessions and look out for overlap, personalities, traits, and characters, that the participants share.

Example:

1. Why Businesses Should start leveraging on the power of social media.

While conducting the Question and answer sessions do well to ask questions about;

Their personal life.

• Where do you live?
• What do you do during your spear time?
• What are your favorite brands?

Technical Background and employment questions.

• What Software or tools do you use while working?
• How many hours do you work per day?
• How do you manage your hectic schedule?

Professional Questions.

• What are your goals and what do you need to achieve those goals?

Now You can add factual details and create a user persona as I did below. Factual details include:

1. Personal background like age, gender, personal groups, and family status.
2. Professional background like occupation, income level, and work experience.
3. User environment like the physical, social, and technological context of the user such as what technological device do you use most?
4. Psychographics. Here you can include details such as user attitudes, interest, motivation, pain points. This enables the designer to understand why users behave in a certain way and why they need your products.

Next is to add all the user end goals.

This is solely for motivational purposes and what the user intends to achieve when they interact with your product and a scenario. A narrative that describes how your users will interact with your products in a particular context to achieve their end goals.

How to write a scenario.

First define when, where, and how? The narrative takes place and define it from the persona perspective.

Finally, remember to focus on the context of the product you are designing. Do not include a pointless decision that won't influence the design. In a nutshell, Include only details that would help map out your user journey and keep it in check.