Playbook for universal design

Universal design methods for more inclusive solutions

Personas Add/remove

Purpose:

The purpose of this exercise is to get a more in depth understanding of the targeted user group. 

A persona can give insights in regards to both opportunities and limitations and can be used as a boundary object for both discussing the user, getting feedback on your understanding of the user, finding problems and solutions and many more. This example will be highlighting how to use them for finding opportunities and limitations.

 

Step by step Facilitating tips Materials needed Goes well with Download template (pdf)

Tips to include participants who are not able to:

Hear

Include a translator that can assist in the presentation and question round.

Speak

Include a translator that can assist in the presentation and question round.

See

Pair up participants and make them fill out two personas together so each has a persona for the questioning round. The sighted partner should then do the noting.

Overview

Input

Knowledge or assumptions about a persona

Output

Personas and a deeper understanding of the user groups.

Complexity

Simple-Moderate

Time

15-70min

Participants

2-6

Activity

Communicating, writing, feel empathy

Step by step:

  1. Divide your participants in groups of two.

  2. Show and hand out the persona template.

  3. Ask the participants to fill out the template based on their knowledge about the user group (5-10 min)

  4. Ask the participants to present the persona as if they were the persona themselves (5 min).

  5. Ask the rest of the group to form questions to ask after the presentation (5 min).

  6. Ask the participants to look through their persona again and modify it if needed based on questions from the other participants(5-10 min).

When doing this method you should consider:

  • Try to make the personas extreme, and exaggerate what they cant do. This can allow for more reflection when creating an inclusive concept.
  • Make sure that there is variety in the personas to see how many different people can be included in the project. 
  • If the target design is for a specific disability include personas with both permanent, temporary and situational abilities that match. 
  • Consider the abilities of your persona 

Materials needed:

  • Templates
  • Pens