Student Personas
My Role
User Experience Designer
Deliverables
Detailed persona profiles / Centralized persona repository
Tools
Miro
Use case
Develop and maintain user personas to guide the design of tools and workflows tailored to the specific needs and goals of diverse institutional roles.
The Challenge
Institutional roles like the Bursar, Head of Admissions, and IT Support vary widely in responsibilities, technical proficiency, and workflows. Capturing these complexities in a scalable and adaptable format was crucial for ensuring our designs addressed users' real needs.
The additional challenge was ensuring personas are not static but updated regularly to reflect evolving institutional strategies, user behaviors, and system feedback.
Understanding the problem
Institutional roles operate within dynamic environments influenced by policy changes, technological advancements, and shifting user expectations. Designing for these roles requires:
Clarity: Identifying specific, evolving needs and challenges.
Relevance: Ensuring personas reflect users' changing experiences and frustrations.
Usability: Building personas that guide product development while accommodating growth and change.
The goal was to create a flexible framework that aligns with system development, prioritizing accuracy and adaptability.
Elements and Structure
The persona development process relies on research and analysis of user behaviors, tasks, and goals. Key elements include:
Demographics
Capturing age, education, technical proficiency, and preferred tools/devices to understand operational contexts.Needs
Documenting user requirements to perform tasks effectively, ensuring workflows are intuitive and seamless.Motivations
Highlighting users' evolving goals, challenges, and fears that drive their behaviors.Behavioral Insights
Exploring how users interact with systems, including time spent on tasks, device preferences, and technical skills.
Delivery and Documentation
A centralized Miro Board was created to house all persona profiles and supporting materials, serving as a dynamic resource for cross-functional teams.
Centralized Board: Ensures easy access to persona data for all team members.
Living Documents: Allows for ongoing updates to keep personas relevant over time.
Collaboration Tools: Facilitates feedback and iterative improvements through annotations and change tracking.
Takeaways
Empathy-Driven Design:
Personas enhance understanding of user needs, enabling designs that are user-centered and impactful.
Adaptable Framework:
By treating personas as living documents, they remain aligned with evolving institutional needs and user behaviors.
Collaboration is Key:
Building and maintaining personas collaboratively ensures they stay relevant and actionable.
Scalability:
Flexible persona frameworks can adapt to new roles, tools, or workflows as the institution grows.