Usability studies

Personas: Setting the Stage for Building Usable Information Sites: "What Are Personas?

Personas are hypothetical archetypes, or 'stand-ins' for actual users that drive the decision making for interface design projects.

Personas are not real people, but they represent real people throughout the design process.

Personas are not 'made up'; they are discovered as a by-product of the investigative process.

Although personas are imaginary, they are defined with significant rigor and precision.

Names and personal details are made up for personas to make them more realistic.

Personas are defined by their goals.

Interfaces are built to satisfy personas' needs and goals.

Source: Alan Cooper, The Inmates Are Running the Asylum: Why High-Tech Products Drive Us Crazy and How to Restore the Sanity, Indianapolis: Sams, 1999, pp. 123-24. (Wording condensed and modified.)