Details of a persona rendering. (Travel icon by Nikita Kozin from the Noun Project.)

User personas, used in UX, scripts, and stories in general, thrive on personal, distinctive details. The person’s attributes, goals, pain points, and personality are weighed heavily towards actual data research conforming to a brand’s offering or story’s narrative. The more we know about our user, the better we can formulate an experience for our perfect customer or participant.

Exact data mining is particularly important, for instance, if we design a user journey for a member of the women’s national skiing team about to enter the Olympics, or a retired male city dweller with dietary restriction looking to engage in a local meal prep program. The more we know the better. The more detailed the user persona, the better the product.

However…

What if these distinctions based on gender, age, demographics or family status are no longer the main focus? What if we need to broaden our UX panorama to be more inclusive, more communal, more non-judgemental?

The question arises thus:

How can we compose a user persona which speaks to broader definitions of an organization’s participant or a product’s user?

If we were to build a user persona for an engineer who graduated from a top university without being gender-specific and age-based, how can we present such a persona? How do we represent data void of stereotypes?

What we do know is that the engineering graduate body is a diverse group of highly qualified and distinguished individuals. Their personalities are defined by their quest for knowledge, keen interest in innovative science, and a thirst to shape the future of their field.

The person’s attributes broaden into areas of long-lasting values, expectations, and future endeavors. Gender, age, location have been eclipsed by mastery, skills, accomplishments, visions, and consciousness.

Persona 1: Jean, the engineer

Engineering is an open field. Universities want the best students, and likewise, organizations need to adhere to principles that define engineers for their status.

An innovative approach to developing a user persona which represent the person’s interests and life style in a visual format, without detailing gender-specific data.

In Persona 1, our engineer, Jean, is presented in an innovative way favoring visuals over detailed descriptions. Although the information about Jean, at first glance, seems simple, much can be pulled from this persona’s presentation. For instance, we know that Jean has graduated from a top-ranked American university, is a homeowner, makes a good salary, has good-to-excellent credit rating, and presents with a goal to acquire a snazzy car. A relationship status of some kind is affirmed, but not too important to elaborate upon.

In addition, Jean’s use of technology is extensive, which Jean’s interest in robotics confirms. Jean’s pain points seem to be the occasional breakdown of systems. This implies that technology and life in general ought to work properly for Jean, and not in chaos or systemic booboos.

In Jean’s persona, we never question gender, age, or demographic group, but rather, we see accomplishments, interests, tech savviness, and goals.

Visuals guide the story.

Persona 2: Billy, the unisex fashion devotee

Fashion brands have embraced an androgynous, unisex look for as long as fashion itself has been in business. No-doubt, a unisex approach presents numerous production advantages. A clothing system overcoming gender-based intricacies can get modularly defined to establish fashion as a unisex trend.

As expected from a design brand, quality of materials, excellence of production, and sublime expression have to meet high standards. Thus, not surprisingly, to design for a gender-neutral customer group might be even more challenging than for a gender-specific clientele, as many more factors, such has sizes, colors, or accessories, have to be match a broad-based customer group equally.

Customers drawn to a unisex look present an entirely different mindset from those who buy based on their gender identity. Their personalities express a space that can be defined in polarities melting together, such inspiring leader meets tech-savvy pragmatist.

Billy presents the persona of a fashion client. A mind map of Billy’s attributes reveals characteristics sometimes opposed to each other, such as Billy’s accomplishments as an inspiring leader are met with Billy’s agile individualism.

In Persona 2, Billy presents a personality that might be surprising in its wealth of stories. No number-specific data associated with Billy is presented, but rather attributes of a mindset that build the sum of Billy’s attitudes, moods, beliefs and accomplishments. These traits combined present a persona that surprises in its vast characteristics of opposites. The themes built around Billy can also be viewed as Billy’s mind map.

Thus, Billy is presented with a mindset where a fearless dreamer meets the debt-free challenger, or the expressive innovator meets the polyglot coder.

Billy as a persona opens up definitions of a fashion client. A mindset is presented, not numbers.

Expressions build the narrative.

Persona 3: Francis, the parent

Everyone with a child is a parent. Parenthood is enjoyed by billions of people, and the definition of a parent has broadened over the past 100 years. Every parent has a set of wishes, concerns, obligations, and dreams for their child.

The environment, schooling, and recreation play a significant role for any parent. Regardless of status, a parent’s life is narrated by goals and pain points. It’s about juggling a balance that needs constant adjustments.

This user persona of a parent’s life represents a constant adjustment of weighing goals, pain points and environmental factors, such as transportation in the city. This parent also exhibits an array of digital devices used in daily life. Image details by Creative Mania, Eric Milet, Kiran Shastry, Made by Made, Made x Made, ALga_design, Nawicon, Chintuza, all downloadable from the Noun Project

In Persona 3, Francis is established as a parent not by hard data, but rather by the weight and concern of the details that combine to form distinctive topics. The size of the bubble indicates the importance of the detail. The bigger the bubble, the larger the focus point.

For instance, money is a bigger pain point than time constraints or environmental factors. This mean, that money issues stress Francis the most. If we compare that with what is mentioned in goals, we see a correlation with Francis’s intent to buy a home and save for college.

The urban environment plays a big role in Francis’s parental day, indicating that city life, transportation, distance to schools, and being a bicylist, all define a day in the life of Francis.

Francis is also shown as being tech savvy, using a mobile phone the most, followed by a laptop device, and a tv set up.

Without being gender-specific, Francis is represented as a parent who cares a lot about doing the right thing, ie, buying a home, saving for college, and showing deep concerns about the consequences of urban living, such as pollution, congestion, and transportation.

What do Jean, Billy, Francis have in common?

All three personas are composed to reflect gender- and age-neutrality, transcending personal gender-based details. All three represent priorities vis-a-vis influences.

For Jean, the engineer, a priority is keeping life well-structured without breakdowns, whereas for Billy, life presents itself as a series of innovative concepts, from being a trendsetter to also being a leader. For Francis, pain points present themselves in realistic terms such as money, but goals are also always kept close.

Gender identity, age specificity, or demographic values can get transcended by focusing on bigger topics, such as mindsets, accomplishments, goals, and skills.

The challenge lies in applying a new paradigm to user persona, one that speaks of the full person and narrative within a community of peers.

In Summary

Gender does not need to drive a user persona.

User personas ought to stress overarching topics such as skills, goals, knowledge, dreams, environment, and future-forward thinking.

User personas can be presented visually and build a narrative based on choices of topics, narrative set-ups, and quantitative sizing of elements.

User personas can even thrive on expanding their stories. Diving deeper into specific areas can get further represented in charts and graphs.

Try this approach in your next user persona.