Mapping Persona Interaction with Scenarios

Abstract

The following article describes a Persona Method through Visual Clues and Socio-Economic Scenarios Interference (PMVC+) in a learning setting performed in the course of Design of Interfaces I, School of Arts, University of Evora, Portugal, in the academic year of 2021/22. The study follows a descriptive case methodology. Supported by previous work, the proposed PMVC+ concerns the project’s early stage and reveals how a mosaic assemblage of visual clues concerning Persona construction and socio-economic scenarios allows an empowered perception of consumers and how those scenarios can influence consumption behaviors. In project guidance, a discovery map was developed to provide an itinerary on cohesive information acquisition. The proposed PMVC+ allowed students to implicitly reason the influence of external variables in their constructions of reality and value external socio-economic scenarios when projecting a persona, enabling a strong focus on consumers and scenario fluidity. Although in part working in fictionalized settings, the PMVC+ triggers the reasoning on the complexity and influence of socio-economic scenarios and delivers more immersive mapping solutions in working with Personas allowing students to retrieve reasoned product opportunities.