Present-ing the user: constructing the persona

During the last few years personas has become an established design technique within the IT-design field. Using personas has proven itself as a valuable approach for designers to switch between a developer's perspective and a user's perspective in the design process. The technique is claimed to help designers in keeping a clear focus and shaping a consistent user-interface by making 'the user' present in the design workIn this paper we report on a number of projects where we have elaborated on the persona approach for collaborative design. With the goal of creating 'user presence' in the design process, we have developed an approach building on a combination of ethnographic exploration, participatory inquiry, and collaborative design. This paper carries two interrelated points: the grounding of personas in existing practice; and the notion that 'the user' is created as an ongoing process throughout the design work. Keywords; concept design, ethnography, interaction design, interdisciplinary design, participatory design, process improvement, user-centred design