User portraits
Why?
Students make user portraits as to get insights into the underlying motivations, beliefs, attitudes and feelings of users or stakeholders. These portraits serve as a foundation for further discussion of the problem space through the eyes of the portrayed users.
How?
Students create narrative portrayals of users or other stakeholders, connected to the problem space. These portraits are based on information that students gather through field research (e.g. observations, interviews, photographs or video recordings etc.). The gathered information is processed and interpreted as to portray specific users or stakeholders in a new, creative way using text, pictures, videos and the like.
Tips…
Students can use their user portraits as a starting point for a role-play (see the method: Role-play). This might bring them even closer to an understanding of the user’s needs and values as they enter the character.