Beware the Cut ‘n’ Paste Persona

This Person Does Not Exist is a website that uses a machine learning algorithm to create individual heads. True portraits are re-used to create false human faces. We just squinted past a LinkedIn post that claimed this site might be helpful “if you are developing a image and looking for a photo.”

We agree: the computer-generated heads could be a great fit for personas—but not for the purpose you might think. Ironically, the website highlights the core issue of this very common design method: the person ( a ) does not exist. Like the photographs, personalities are artificially made. Knowledge is combined with natural environment to create a singular, unrealized snapshot.

However, oddly enough, developers use personalities to inform their designs for the real world.

Personas: A action up

Most manufacturers have created, used, or come across personalities at least once in their profession. In their content” Personas- A Plain Introduction”, the Interaction Design Foundation defines profile as “fictional characters, which you create based upon your study in order to reflect the unique user types that might use your service, product, site, or brand”. In their most complete expression, personas typically consist of a name, profile picture, quotes, demographics, goals, needs, behavior in relation to a certain service/product, emotions, and motivations ( for example, see Creative Companion’s Persona Core Poster ). The purpose of personas, as stated by design agency Designit, is” to make the research relatable, ]and ] easy to communicate, digest, reference, and apply to product and service development”.

The decontextualization of identities

Personas are common because they make “dry” research information more realistic, more people. However, this process constrains the study’s data research in such a way that the investigated customers are removed from their unique settings. As a result, personalities don’t describe important factors that make you know their decision-making method or allow you to connect to users ‘ thoughts and behavior, they lack stories. You are aware of the persona’s actions, but you lack the knowledge to know why. You end up with less human-like user images.

This “decontextualization” we see in identities happens in four way, which we’ll discuss below.

Identities assume people are dynamic

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