Personas are fictionalized portraits of typical site users, synthesized from user research, including field studies, interviews, and surveys. Each persona includes details such as name, occupation, educational history, behaviors, goals, skills, and attitudes. Character details are often incorporated to bring a persona to life, which makes reference to them feel more natural.
A set of personas is useful for defining your key users and how your site can meet their needs. Personas are also often helpful in making decisions relating to specific functionality, site objectives, interaction design, global navigation, and more. You can keep these conversations grounded in user needs by asking questions such as “Would [persona] Chris find this feature useful?”