Personas are a user experience tool used to separate the developers (us) from our eventual users, remind us that we are not building a product for ourselves, but for others, and ground the design in the needs of real people. 

How do personas help?
When peronas are well developed, they provide a lot of insight into appropriate design choices. Rather than just wondering if a design is usable, we can ask Does this work for Carol? John? Personas can act as a touchstone to a set of user needs, habits, and can facilitate communication across teams.  So while a command line interface might be fully functional, a person who searches for flights on Kayak.com and uses Yahoo! mail is not going to be comfortable with it.

What’s next?
Over the development process, these personas will evolve and grow more detailed. Right now, we only have research on LUM activities. For the next release, we will add a new component of responsibilities and needs, whether that’s enrollment, scheduling, or financials.

A final thought
UX experts have been using personas for years to aid in the development process. They’re nothing new, but they are a tried and tested way of building user-centered products.

Personas are perhaps the best tool in the user-centered design toolbox for communicating empathy — they feel like real people with real concerns, and can transfer insights realizedthrough research to other members of the project team. – Peter Merholtz, Usability Expert