Nicole Gallardo’s Post

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UX Design Specialist • Advisor • Strategist • Advocate

User personas for kids? Not in my book. 📕 Here’s why: Kids are ridiculously creative, unpredictable, and not yet molded by society. They possess limitless potential, even though their environments are almost always fully dependent on others. Designing a great EdTech product for children requires acknowledgment by the business and designer that, unlike adults who typically fall within one user type or another, each child is completely and utterly unique.  🦄 The best products my kids use to learn provide flexible experiences that allow each of them to explore and learn at their own pace while feeling individually supported and guided every step of the way. Personas for kids are typically based on: • age 🙄 • generalized education standards 😬 • the adult-controlled demographics they live within 🤨 One alternative that I've seen work very well is when product teams relentlessly and continuously talk to as many of their young users as possible (without proxies). With this type of hands-on qualitative discovery, the problem their product is trying to solve is seen in its clearest light, while the intricate, complex, and diverse user needs are simultaneously refined. 👉 👉 What do you think? Are UX personas for kids helpful? What other tactics help EdTech product teams better understand the young users they’re designing for? Comment below ⬇ ✅ Follow Founders Who UX for free resources, UX for Leaders 101 course updates, and more design food for thought. 🌮 #edtech #ux #productdesign

Polina Lulu

Child Experience Researcher that ❤️ Play & Learning

9mo

One of my favorite topics! Absolutely agree with you. There is a big risk of missing actual kids by making ux personas based on standard adult parameters or the ones you mention. It’s a paradox, but in this case the persona tool might put us deeper in our assumptions box instead of bringing us closer to the children. I’ve actually started creating a kids persona template that tries to take in account question that can help in learning about your young audience. Combined with the habitual continuous research, of course. 

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