TERM TUESDAY: Why are PERSONAS so controversial? Should they be based on a teams’ hypotheses about their audience and validated in qualitative research? Or always developed based on qualitative research learning? What is a persona? When is it best used? Persona is the UX Lexicon word of the week!

Take a minute to learn about PERSONAS. Why? Because when we have a shared understanding of our core terms we are able to work more efficiently and effectively! We will reduce confusion and rework and be able to focus on doing meaningful UX work that really matters!

There is controversy about how useful personas are potentially due to misunderstanding and their misuse. There are conflicting ideas about the best way to define/develop persona profiles. It is also SUPER important to revisit them and update them over time, and this seldom happens.

Check out the full UX Lex entry to increase your awareness of the topic and please discuss it with some colleagues and clients. Find out how their interpretation of the term compares and contrasts to expand your awareness and help us mitigate the amount of confusion surrounding our terminology.

UX Lex is an evolving, interactive glossary of UX research terms.
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