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[This definition from the Alzheimer's Society refers to people with dementia, but personas can of course be used to describe any group of people.]
Personas are fictitious characters developed to represent typical service users when organisations are looking to develop or improve services. They are a tool you can use to gather empathy and insights about the experiences of people with dementia. This can be used for service design.
PROS AND CONS
Useful for
- Rather than considering people who use your services by reference to characteristics such as ethnicity and age, personas focus on breaking down service users in terms of their needs, wants and preferences.
- They may be especially useful for
-- exploring very personal needs in a safe and less personal-seeming way.
-- considering the needs of smaller, specific groups of service users
-- developing empathy and insights to service user experience.
Disadvantages
- You need a facilitator for the process who is very familiar with the service user experience data and how to create personas.
- They are not real people.
- How accurate they are is limited by how rich a picture your service user data can provide and by the understanding of your service users of the people have who are creating them.
- They may be best used along with involvement, rather than instead of involvement, of people with dementia and carers.
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Smartline’s Personas have been co-designed by the University of Exeter and participants in the Smartline Project. Personas are fictional characters based on real-life research. They provide opportunities for user-centered design without breeching personal privacy, and can support the development of products, processes, and services linked to eHealth and eWellbeing. Why did we create Smartline personas? Our personas help to communicate the needs, aspirations, strengths, motivations, experiences, behaviours, and lifestyles of people who live in Cornwall’s social housing. The eight personas represent different groups of people and can be used by organisations to inform evidence-based and community-focused planning.
[Follow the link to the source of this definition to access the eight Smartline personas]
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These personas describe a range of individuals who might typically receive adult social care services in Dorset. They are shared here by kind permission of Dorset Council.
The personas were developed as part of the adult social care (ASC) service design project, which sits within the ACS transformation programme. However, they are intended to be used across the council as a tool for thinking about people who access adult social care services and how their experiences can be improved.
Of course, the personas don’t represent everyone, and it’s important to recognise that every service user is a unique individual with their own story, strengths, and needs.
The personas and their stories are fictional and are not intended to resemble real people.
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