Step 7—Determine types of people

Once you have identified one or more personas, you must determine the type of each. The main ones are the primary and the secondary person, but there are several other types, such as negative, supplementary, served person.

The primary person is the one that needs to be catered for in every way by the product. She will not be satisfied if the design is done for anyone else. If we make the primary person happy, the others will not be sad.

The secondary is generally satisfied with the interface made to the primary, but has some additional specific needs. Make the design for the primary and then, as far as possible, accommodate the needs of the secondary.

The supplementary is neither primary nor secondary, but is satisfied with the solutions of the first or second. They are usually employed to materialize stakeholder assumptions.

The negative persona is the one for which the product was not made. It's another layer of data validation for the survey.

The served person does not use the product directly, but is affected by its use. For example, that person who waits for the clerk to make his room reservation.

One way to identify the type of personas is by elimination. Ask yourself who could not be primary. Ask the question—if you design this person, would the others be dissatisfied? If the answer is yes, this would not be the primary person. Are personas so different that they need totally different interfaces? Or could one of them meet most needs? If there are people with very different needs, we will probably have more than one primary person and each one will probably have its own interface.