Anti-Personas
ignorethecode.net
<p>In design, it's always easer to say "yes" than to say "no." Nobody is hurt by a "yes," so nobody fights against a "yes." That's why applications have <a href="http://ignorethecode.net/blog/2010/02/02/removing-features/">a tendency to grow until they become unwieldy and unusable</a>.</p>
<p>Personas are a common tool to make better design decisions, but they're mostly used for feature addition. What do these people need? Who is this feature for?</p>
<p>They're a less powerful tool for feature prevention.</p>
<p>That's why, in addition to a list of Personas, it can also be helpful to have a list of Anti-Personas. The term "Anti-Persona" has a bunch of different meanings, including people you specifically want to prevent or discourage from using your product, but in our case, they are just Personas we aren't targeting. They're a bad fit for our product.</p>
<p>Having these types of Anti-Personas helps delineate the border between features that make sense, and features that are outside of your product's scope.</p>
<p>If you're working with Personas, it may be worthwhile to also define Anti-Personas. Together, the two allow for more intentional design decisions, where saying "no" becomes a choice that is easier to make.</p>
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