From Bargain Hunter to Luxe Urbanite: How Persona Archetypes Shape User Behavior

How personas and archetypes impact our product and design work, and how the way we interface with these UX tools may be evolving with AI.

The awkward moment when you bump into your personas on Oxford Street. Made with Midjourney

All right, UX friends, I have an honest question. When did you last referenced your personas to inform your product and design work? Are your personas sat in a Figma file somewhere gathering digital dust? Have you even had the chance to pull together some basic personas to align your broader approach to UX?

If yes to all of these, super duper, that’s great. If not, I’m guessing you’re in the majority. In today’s UX culture, it’s unsurprising that tools such as personas have diminished in prominence. Firstly, because folks, it’s busy out there. We’re putting out fires more frequently and working more reactively. Secondly, it’s pretty hard to understand the benefits of personas. They can feel abstract, and like they oversimplify real user problems.

So recently, a junior designer asked me how to use personas to inform our work in UX content design, and I realised how long it has been since I’ve used this part of my UX toolbox.

Let’s start on the same page with a simple definition. A user persona is a fictional, research-based representation of a typical user or customer, representing a pattern in…