Understanding Personas with Alan Cooper



Alan Cooper has been a pioneer in the software world for more than 40 years. He is the author of two groundbreaking books on interaction design, creator of the Goal-Directed design methodology, and co-founder of the interaction design agency Cooper. Alan is also widely known as the “Father of Visual Basic.”

In this one-on-one interview presented at Cascade SF, Alan discusses personas (a widely used design tool that he developed) as well as some of the concepts behind Goal-Directed design. A few of the topics that Alan shares his insight on include:

  • Personas: what they are, what they aren’t, and common misunderstandings
  • Considerations when designing and defining personas
  • What personas tell you that demographics don’t
  • The importance of narrative in interaction design

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Published October 1, 2014