The Persona Lifecycle: Keeping People in Mind Throughout Product Design

摘要

In the decade since Alan Cooper invented the concept of personas in The inmates are running the asylum (Sams Publishing, 1999; reviewed in the February 1999 issue of Technical communication), designers and design teams have wrestled with the best way to create and use personas. Unfortunately, as they've become more popular, more people have misunderstood and misused personas, leading to more misper-ceptions. Enter The persona lifecycle, a hefty guide to all things persona. Sporting a foreword from the aforementioned Cooper, The persona life-cycle provides the "most complete description ... of what personas are, along with useful instructions on how to apply them" (xvi). Several things in particular struck me as I read this book. First, many references went into pulling this book together. Second, the concept of a lifecycle for a persona is an intriguing prospect. Third, Pruitt and Adlin really get into the nitty-gritty of why you would need to create personas in product and interaction design. They include numerous examples throughout the book, along with a continuing case study for putting the process into perspective.