Personas and Empathy Maps
After conducting the research for a design, the next step is to analyze the data and use those findings to create detailed user personas. The data from the user research provides a baseline for who the different types of users are in the target market. This information helps to create more accurate user personas.
So what is a user persona?
“A user persona is a semi-fictional character based on your current (or ideal) customer. Personas can be created by talking to users and segmenting by various demographic and psychographic data to improve your product marketing.”
Grenier, Louis
The personas are basically representing a broader group of customers that fall into a similar category, such as, having similar motivations, ages, etc. This is why diverse research is necessary to create proper personas that capture all the different types of users.
“A persona can consolidate expansive customer data into a single document that’s both easy to reference and easy to understand.”
Ellis, Matt
What is an Empathy Map?
An empathy map serves a similar purpose as a user persona. It was also created with the purpose of understanding and gaining a better grasp on the users of the target market. An empathy map helps a researcher place themselves in the user’s shoes and gain a deeper understanding of the feels of that use. Including pain points and the emotions behind them.
Our Empathy Maps
This past week, my partner and I continued to analyze our findings and used this researched data to create out empathy maps and personas. We made three empathy maps based on our user interviews. Our empathy maps are divided into four sections, observations, feelings, needs, and thinking. These sections help us see through the user’s point of view and they way they are experiencing the app and how that feels to them. On the empathy maps we also have sections for Insights/Problems and Ideas/Solutions, which help identify the exact pain points of the app and can help ideate solutions for them.
Our Personas
After creating empathy maps based on our user interviews, we then focused on personas, which we based both on the data from the interviews and the data from the survey. The survey responses really allowed us to see the different types of users in our target market. We were able to look at the different age groups, state residence, reasons for drinking smoothies, and more, we were able to break down and organize this large target market into three different personas that people fit into.
Our first persona is Sam Smith, a 32 year old Social Media Manager from New York. Her reason for drinking smoothies is to have a balanced and healthy diet. Her preferences include variety in recipes, milk alternatives, nutritional information, and reviews. All of this data was collected from our research and represents the aspects of a specific target demographic.
The next persona for our users is Josh Jacobs. He is a 24 year old Personal Trainer from New Jersey. The reason why he drinks smoothies is for protein for his workouts. His preferences include a variety in recipes, options for adding sources of protein, options for swapping ingredients, nutritional facts, and ability to create his own recipes. This persona is also based on a group of our target market.
Our last persona is Adele Adams, a 72 year old woman from Connecticut. She drinks smoothies as a snack because she likes the taste of them. Her preferences include a variety in recipes, straight forward recipes that are easy to read and follow, and she also likes to see videos that she can follow along with when creating her smoothies. This persona represents the last demographic in our target market.
These personas and empathy maps have added a layer of understanding from the user’s point of view that will help us make our redesign even better. To create an app for the user, you need to always have them at the front of your mind. These personas and empathy maps help to make that happen.
Sources:
Dam, Rikke Friis, and Teo Yu Siang. “Personas – A Simple Introduction.” The Interaction Design Foundation, http://www.interaction-design.org/literature/article/personas-why-and-how-you-should-use-them.
Ellis, Matt. “How to Create a User Persona.” 99designs, 99designs, 24 Jan. 2018, 99designs.com/blog/business/how-to-create-user-personas/.
Grenier, Louis. “What Are User Personas? How to Create Personas in 4 Steps.” Hotjar, 2018, http://www.hotjar.com/blog/user-personas/#:~:text=A%20user%20persona%20is%20a,to%20improve%20your%20product%20marketing.
McCay, Arthur. “How to Create a Persona in 7 Steps – A Guide with Examples.” UXPressia Blog, 5 Nov. 2020, uxpressia.com/blog/how-to-create-persona-guide-examples.
Rudd, John. “What Is an Empathy Map: Accenture.” WordPressBlog, Accenture, 13 Jan. 2021, http://www.accenture.com/us-en/blogs/bloglandingpage/blogpostpage?wppreview=45257#:~:text=An%20empathy%20map%20is%20a,popularity%20within%20the%20agile%20community.
