Personas as Character Sheets. A Multipurpose Tool When Using Role-Play in Design Education

Abstract

There are numerous examples of role-playing being adapted and included as a pedagogical technique in teaching, including in higher education. For example, teachers might simulate different scenarios, and role-play different stakeholders and users, in order to create more experiential types of learning environments. Role-playing can also provide an opportunity for students to actively explore, reflect upon and personalise the material that is studied. Similar techniques can be seen in User Experience Design (UXD), where practitioners create personas and scenarios to describe representative and typical users and use-cases. In this report, we propose an alternative use to the more traditional way of using personas and scenarios in academia as well as in industry: as character sheets and role-playing. Instead of being more analytical and descriptive tools in the design process, our role-playing approach invites exploration and personal interaction. Putting such character sheets into action allows the design team to interact with hypothetical, but typical users, thus providing a richer understanding of their context, and facilitating an empathetic understanding of the different stakeholders and their sometimes conflicting interests. This is particularly relevant in an educational context, where students are learning and training to improve as designers.