El concepto persona (usado así en inglés) se emplea en diferentes áreas, como el marketing, para representan un personaje ficticio, al que se le suele dar un nombre y una serie de características concretas.
En usabilidad y en el diseño centrado en el usuario se emplea este término para representar personajes ficticios que no son personas reales, pero que podrían serlo.
En el artículo Accessibility in User-Centered Design: Personas se proporcionan algunas pautas para aplicar esta técnica a la accesibilidad.
Por ejemplo, lo siguiente es una descripción de una posible "persona":
Hanna is moving up the corporate ladder. Her goal is to replace the current HR manager when he retires in three years. Hanna prides herself on being fast, efficient, and precise. She stakes her reputation on the month-end reports that show how many transactions she has completed in comparison to her colleagues.
Hanna, who has been blind since birth, uses a screen reader when she works on the computer. She has used jaws as her screen reader for the past 5 years. Hanna has worked hard to master the long list of key combinations in jaws and she is proud of her speed and accuracy.
Hanna struggles with balancing work life and family life. She works from home on Tuesdays and Thursdays so that she can be with her kids. Her computer setup at home is much older and slower than the one at work and she sometimes gets frustrated because she feels limited when working at home.
Hanna's home computer has an older version of jaws. She sometimes attempts to use key combinations at home that only function on the newer version of jaws she has at work. As a result, she often finds herself repeating steps. She reads Braille, but she doesn't use a refreshable Braille display either at work or at home.
Hanna likes corresponding with other jaws users through email. She has learned tips and tricks from her online friends and has found that each person has a unique setup and that everyone uses jaws a little differently.
Hanna views her computer as a helpful and (mostly) enjoyable tool to help her climb to the top. Hanna has one big hang-up related to using the computer – she hates to ask for help. She will spend hours trying to figure something out on her own, rather than admit that she doesn't know what to do.
