Creating personas and user journey maps had been a challenging but rewarding experience. Learning how to use and develop the tools that are foundational to user centered design, has helped me gain a new perspective on what is required when developing interfaces and how users would interact with a given website. The personas and user journey maps offered more value than I had originally expected. They evolved from just methods to organize data to something I will be able to use to develop a deep understanding of the people I am designing for. 

One of the key insights I gained from the creation of personas, was the contrast between assumed needs and actual user needs. In the early stages of development, I found myself trying to create an ideal user. This fictional user was tech savvy, motivated, and followed simple and predictable behaviors. However, after some thought, and closer inspections of the interview and real user data, I discovered that the reality was more complex and less straightforward. Users often had overlapping needs but different emotional reactions and expectations of what the program website should provide them. For example, in the parent persona highlighted the mom’s frustration with feeling excluded due to not having adequate representation of her needs as a parent. This encouraged me to start thinking of how to include basic user needs as well as having dedicated sections of the website to specific user groups. 

The user journey maps took this empathetic outlook and understanding even deeper. By plotting users’ emotional experiences across different stages of interaction with the current website, I could clearly see when and what caused them to have positive and negative reactions. A key insight my team and I were able to gains, is how the lack of a clear description of the differences between Visual Communications and Graphic Design caused all user groups to experience confusion. This information has confirmed to us that there it is of great importance to place such information at the top of the focal hierarchy. For me personally, it helped me realize that the emotional reactions users’ experience are just as important as the accessibility of the website. 

One of my biggest challenges when creating the personas and journey maps, was avoiding my own personal biases. To try and combat these biases, I focused on mainly drawing information from the interviews rather than my own feelings and assumptions. Grouping the common experiences each user group had allowed me to make accurate depictions of the needs of my proposed user in that group. Discussing my individual personas and user journey maps with my team gave me a reference to whether or not I allowed my biases to cloud my judgment. 

This process has greatly benefited me as a designer. I have expanded my view on what users need from a interface. I was able to learn how to push my assumptions aside and put the users experiences ahead of my own. I have come to realize that every interface should be distinctly human as it is made to address human needs and designed around our habits.