Personas can be helpful when doing UX work, but they are often too perfect. The characterisation usually represents an idealised state of being.
"The mid-30s stay-at-home mother personas never have troubled marriages, difficulty with their kids, or worries about ageing parents—unless those problems are directly relevant to the thing being designed." – writes Eric Meyer in his article on UX Mastery.
And: "But our actual users for whom we’re trying to design these experiences, do have stresses and worries in their lives. They are human. When personas fail to include stresses and worries that have little or nothing to do with whatever we’re creating, we’re actually blinding ourselves."
Eric Meyer recommends not to drain the life from personas (and scenarios). "Be raw. Bring in snippets of users’ anecdotes if you have them, and include emotion wherever you can. Whoever picks these personas up down the line should feel as compelled to help them as you do."
Read more in the original article.
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