Digital Garden uses personas and user journeys in its human-centered design process to ensure the team is aligned and we understand everything we can about users. These two UX tools are used in conjunction and form the basis for subsequent UX activities.
Personas
A persona is a fictional character designed on a set of real attributes. They function to ensure the design is user-centered and can always be referenced against the needs, wants and frustrations of real users. This type of empathetic design is based on user research and is used across the whole design process.
Digital Garden performs user research prior to the creation of personas. This research is then sorted and grouped to form similar sets of data that can be used to create personas. We then map the needs, wants, frustrations and background information of users to a persona template. This visual artifact forms a realistic character that can be referenced by the design team and shared with the wider stakeholder group.
Personas make design decisions easier by having an authentic reference. Instead of making decisions based on assumptions, we can make decisions based on real users and their needs.
Digital Garden delivers a set of visual personas that include all the relevant attributes and information. These are able to be shared and socialised with stakeholders so there is visibility into the design process and choices we make.
User journeys
A user journey map shows the touchpoints and processes a user goes through to complete an activity. This user is represented by our persona and their touchpoints are mapped across a scenario.
Digital Garden produces a visual journey map that shows the pain points and key areas that the user encounters on their journey. The map also shows opportunities that are used to consider how the design might alleviate pain points.
We circulate the journey map internally to ensure the design team is aligned on the needs of the user and no gaps are left unchecked. Multiple journeys maps might be made depending on how many different personas or flows are being designed for.
Digital Garden delivers the journey maps in a visual format accompanying the personas. This package creates a robust user-centered backbone to the project and is regularly used as a design reference.
