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Recently I came to know about Personas and how to implement them. I read few design processes and came to know how to execute it.

Through my learning I found two kind of personas i.e.

1. Persona of Users who use the website.
2. Persona of representative or character of the organisation (eg: 'mailchimp' uses chimp in order to reflect their persona)

I'm about to design my portfolio and I'm trying to include persona in it. Should I include my own persona or the persona of target users/clients or both??

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  • What is your persona? What type of people will be looking at your portfolio? What field are you in? We need more details to provide better answers. Right now it sounds like it's just a personal decision which would mean that this question is primarily opinion based and should be closed May 20, 2015 at 13:26
  • I takes a lot to describe. I'll tell you in short. I'm a Passionate web designer who loves to create some creative stuff, though I'm a fresher in this field I learn constantly to develop my skills and I'll give my clients the best work I can! People looking at my portfolio are those who want to hire a web designer for their projects. So the persona in my portfolio should be mine or the users of my site? Since It is my portfolio, it should reflect my persona or should it reflect my users persona in order to attract them? or both?
    – bharat
    May 20, 2015 at 14:17
  • 1
    Ask yourself this.... Will you be hired for who you are or for who you've targeted in designs? My inclination is the former.
    – Scott
    May 20, 2015 at 17:11
  • Your portfolio should shown your personality as well as be tailored to your target audience.
    – DA01
    May 20, 2015 at 18:11
  • What is the difference between user and client?
    – user44196
    May 22, 2015 at 8:46

2 Answers 2

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I don't understand what you are calling "Persona". Is that like an avatar or a pet? In spanish that just mean people.

But I'm posting some diagrams.

When you make some creative work you have this 3 elements. As we are in the Graphic design industry the artist is "Me".

In some cases a person can be 2 elements at once, for example a portrait photography where the client and user can be the same.

enter image description here


1) In the first case, an excentric artists who is making a new kind of painting trowing paintballs naked from an helicopter. Probably he dosen't care about a gallery or a buyer of the painting.

The blue arrows show the direction of the ""looks"", who is expected to look at who.

enter image description here


2) In this second case lets say the client is a super sport car company. The client want the new car model to be a symbol and the design arround it must make people turn the eyes into the brand.

http://otake.com.mx/Foros/ArtistVsDesigner-03.png

The majority of pets, and marketing campains are targeted this way.


3) This third case is a functional design, the way a subway turnstile looks, a street sign, etc.

http://otake.com.mx/Foros/ArtistVsDesigner-04.png


The question here is what aproach you want to show?

a) I don't think at an entry level people will look for you for who you are They don't know you at all. A vast majority of clients want to see what can you do for them. (case number 2) If you want to try that aproach, make emphasis on case studies, a clear webdesign, probably following current trends. Yea you are showing your work! but you are considering the viewer or potential viewer as you primary design factor.

b) Some art director can look for a particular style and you want to make a strong statement on your unique style. You are mad, you are a rebel. The webdesign you do is a crazy one that is more as a puzzle than a corporate boring design. Yeap there is a chance a visitor will leave before finding the first link, but it dosen't matter to you. There you are in a case number 1.


I am adding a note here. When you are designing your own portafolio it turns that the client, the big bubble on case number 2 is you.

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  • 2
    Really interesting take and explanation.
    – Ryan
    May 20, 2015 at 20:50
  • I like the visuals. Nicely put.
    – DA01
    May 20, 2015 at 23:48
  • Oh, and 'persona' does literally mean 'person' though it's typically not a real person. When designing, you typically have a particular demographic you are trying to target, the persona is a distillation of that demographic into a single person. That person is then used to help communicate with stakeholders as to the design decisions being made. For example, if designing a banking web site, you may have 3 personas you design around: Mary the retired school teacher, Sarah the 40-something wall street CEO, and Bob, the 20-something student.
    – DA01
    May 20, 2015 at 23:50
  • This is a great answer @Rafael. Now I got a very clear idea about persona. I didn't even know that these many cases exist, well I didn't thought about it. Thanks for your detail answer! :) (y)
    – bharat
    May 21, 2015 at 10:00
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First off, the purpose of a portfolio is to show off the work that you've created and give the viewer an impression of what you're capable of in addition to the style that you have. That means that it should be focused around the work you create, not any persona. Companies seeking out the level of production and feel that you show in your portfolio will likely contact you after seeing it.

But, as Scott mentioned in his comment, anyone looking at your portfolio should be interested in you because they're looking to hire or at least get information about you. As such, the primary persona you should portray (if you even try to implement one at all) should be yours.

The only time in which you may try and portray the persona of a given client is if you're doing a case study and want to show how you built the branding/persona of the client through your work.

Overall companies are interested in you and your work. Build your portfolio in a way that shows that well.

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  • This is absolutely fine I guess. but, as Rafael said "entry level people will not look for you for, who you are". If that is the case I should target clients. Well I think I should work more to make an appropriate decision. Thanks for all your Inputs.
    – bharat
    May 21, 2015 at 10:12
  • @bharat I disagree. If I'm looking to get someone to do anything for me, I want to know they will do a great job. As such, I want to see their previous work and be assured that they can do a great job. It doesn't matter if you're entry level or a professional for 15 years, I'm still interested in the quality of work you output, not the client work you've done specifically May 21, 2015 at 13:18
  • Actually I agree with Zach too. But I'll explain a little bit more on that topic in the post.
    – Rafael
    May 21, 2015 at 21:09
  • @Rafael thanks for clarification. I thought in different way, so in my case ill be the designer & client since i'm designing my own portfolio! so it's my persona that i should portray. thanks everyone!
    – bharat
    May 26, 2015 at 7:51

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