Hewlett Packard (HP) is a global leader in the design and manufacture of printing equipment. Their large-format printing division is based in Barcelona and since 2001 I have worked with the R&D team as a user-centred design consultant. My main responsibility is to ensure that the products are easy to use and meet all customer expectations. Through my professional collaboration with HP I have gained an insight into their user-centred design process. In 2003 HP started using ‘Personas’ as a method of communicating user requirements within product development teams. The initial results from using this methodology were mixed and HP was keen for me to research how this process could be deployed more effectively.
Through my literature review I found a lot of documentation advocating the use of personas — without detailing exactly how they should be used. Furthermore, many of the authors extolling the use of personas were themselves offering professional services in persona-based design. Very little independent research demonstrating the effectiveness of the persona-based approach has been published. I decided to conduct my own research into the effectiveness of personas as a design tool. I carried out an experiment with a group of third-year Industrial Design students. The class was divided into groups and given a brief to solve; some using personas, some without. The objective of the research was to evaluate the impact of the persona-based approach on the final designs and also to learn more about the students experience using the technique; whether they felt it was helpful or not. Through conducting this research I hope to identify the key benefits of the approach, if any, and to identify the most effective way of using personas in the product design process.