Persona (User Experience) — Examples

Example 1 — One evidence-anchored persona from six sessions

A finance team is redesigning the expense form and cannot agree which user to design for. Six interviews split cleanly into weekly filers and twice-a-year filers. Write one persona from the cluster the next release will change, with the evidence line attached.

Sessions: 6, March
Cluster A: 4 people, file weekly, keep receipts in a wallet, want
           the form they used last time
Cluster B: 2 people, file twice a year, hunt for the right
           category, re-read the policy page each time
Quote A:   "I just want last month's form back"
Quote B:   "is a train ticket travel costs or client costs?"

Solution

Persona:  Dana, files expenses every Friday afternoon
Goal:     submit the week's receipts in one sitting
Context:  desk, end of day, twenty receipts in a wallet
Today:    opens the last submission and copies its categories
Quote:    "I just want last month's form back"
Evidence: 4 of 6 sessions, March
Chosen:   cluster A, because the next release changes the form

This is not a stereotype: the grouping came from filing behaviour and the goal, not from age or job title, and every line traces to a March session, so the evidence line makes the profile challengeable and updatable rather than decorative. The usual mistake is the opposite of evidence — a name, a stock photo and invented interests that no design decision can lean on, which is the sort of persona that costs a week and hardens assumptions.