ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a simple framework for approaching the technique—the persona lifecycle—that sheds light on how personas fit into a standard development cycle. It provides a little detail on two critical aspects of the method—creating and using personas. Personas are a relatively young and popular technique used to help bring users into the forefront of people’s minds during the difficult process of developing products and services. Personas are fictitious, specific, and concrete representations of target users. Personas put a face on the user: a memorable, engaging, and actionable image to serve as a design target. The persona lifecycle is a metaphorical framework that breaks down persona creation and use into sequential phases that map onto the life stages of human reproduction and development. Personas are typically created and communicated as static documents or posters that provide a snapshot of interesting and relevant information about users.
