Exploring the Use of Personas in User-Centered Design of Web-based e-services
Anders Hjalmarsson, Eva Gustafsson, Stefan Cronholm · 2015
Web-based e-services are often developed for diverse user populations. This is a challenge to the design as they then has to meet different user goals and needs. User-centered design have been suggested as a feasible approach to develop artifacts that meet needs and goals of several user groups by involving actual users in the design. However, developing web e-services for diverse user populations requires involvement of actual end users whom the designer seldom has access to or control over. In this paper we explore the function that documented personas, as stand-in to real users, can bring to the design of web-based e-services. Actual use of persona observed in a commercial design project is compared with persona benefits derived from UCD theory, evaluating their usefulness in design of web e-services. In addition ten supplementary benefits are derived from the data and discussed in terms of value to the design of web-based e-services.