This week we’re going to introduce the first post of a series on driving user experience (UX) design in the life sciences and healthcare based on the crucial element of persona. A persona is a stand-in for a real user - it’s a detailed description of an archetypal user, attempting to capture a bit more about them than just their job role - to understand a bit about their motivations, cultural filters, likes and dislikes, etc. Personae allow us to think like the user and become advocates for their needs. We name our personae and talk about them as if they were real people - because in a sense, they are. We drive the construction of these personae by interviewing real users or surveying the marketplace.