What is a persona in UX design?

In UX design, a persona is a fictional character that embodies the traits, behaviors, needs, and goals of a specific user type within a targeted segment. This tool is used to guide design decisions by ensuring that the team keeps user characteristics in mind throughout the design process. By creating detailed personas, designers can empathize more with users, understand their motivations, and make informed design choices that align with actual user needs.

Personas are often derived from user research, such as interviews and surveys, allowing designers to base their decisions on real user insights, rather than assumptions. They help to humanize the user base, turning abstract data into relatable characters that inform design strategies. This focus on user-centric design is fundamental in developing interfaces or experiences that genuinely resonate with the target audience, thereby enhancing user satisfaction and engagement.

Other options, while related to design, do not capture the essence of what a persona is. A visual mockup refers to the representation of a design concept, a statistical representation speaks to quantitative data that may not provide specific insights into individual user behavior, and a set of goals is more about design objectives rather than understanding user needs and characteristics through a relatable persona.