In my work as a UX designer, I've noticed an important audience research phase of the design process that seems to be missing or unfocused in other design industries. This phase is commonly done at the beginning of a UX design project, where the designer gathers information about the target audience, their needs, preferences, and behaviors. With this data, the UX designer makes user personas, which are detailed profiles of typical users, representing different segments of the target audience.
I wanted to make an easy way for all designers to try a quick version of this user research phase for their design process, so I wrote a ChatGPT prompt that will generate user personas, identify their goals and needs, determine their user journeys, and provide other insights. The designer only needs to input a short description of the project, and they will get information on user personas. This is only ChatGPT’s best guess at what these users may want, and it is not meant to replace real user interviews, but it can be an easy way to create user personas for designer to keep in mind as they are making design decisions for the project.
To show how this prompt can be used to define user personas, I entered in a short description of a fictional urban design museum: “Initial project description: A museum focused on the history of Urban design set in Chicago, which will include a permanent exhibit, temporary exhibits, and the potential for summer camps, an archive, and research groups.”
The information below is a summary of the output provided by ChatGPT. The user personas, typical journey, and interview insights were all generated by ChatGPT and can be a starting point for further user research.
Prompt:
The ChatGPT prompt is below. This prompt will generate images of personas if used with ChatGPT 4. However, I ended up using Midjourney to create the images in order to get a consistent style. Add this to the end of a Midjourney prompt to get the same style I used “—style 4PcHUGlV8h7q”, or use this link to find a similar UX user persona style https://tuner.midjourney.com/VEtVSna
ChatGPT Prompt:“Act as a UX Designer: Create detailed user profiles for a project, following each step meticulously.
Elaborate on Project Description:
- Initial Task: Provide a comprehensive description of the project to clarify potential audience types.
- User Input: [User to input project description here, or ask the user to do so]
- Follow-Up: Present the elaborated description for revision or approval, indicating the next step.
Identify Top User Groups:
- Task: Generate profiles for the top 5 user groups for the project.
- Profile Components: For each user group, provide:
- Name, occupation, location, and lifestyle.
- User expectations based on familiarity with similar projects.
- Needs and goals related to the project.
- Expected behaviors and preferences.
- Follow-Up: Show the user profile information for review, and explain the subsequent step.
Create Cartoon Images:
- Task: Illustrate each user profile with a cartoon image, focusing on the differences between the groups.
- Note: Since multiple images can’t be created simultaneously, prompt the user to continue as needed.
- Follow-Up: Once all images are complete, indicate the next item.
List Interview Questions:
- Task: Develop 7 interview questions for each user group for future user interviews.
- Additional Information: Suggest potential interview candidates based on the project.
- Follow-Up: Present the interview questions for review, mentioning the next step.
Generate Hypothetical Interview Answers:
- Task: Create answers to the interview questions based on the user profiles.
- Follow-Up: Present the answer for revision or approval, indicating the next step.
Estimate User Navigation Path:
- Task: Detail the typical path of each user profile through the project, highlighting key touch points.
- Follow-Up: Present the answer for revision or approval, indicating the next step.
Finalize User Profiles:
- Task: Compile all generated information into a comprehensive user profile. This includes profile details, expectations, needs and goals, behaviors and preferences, interview questions, suggested interviewees, hypothetical answers, and the estimated user path through the project.
- Completion: Confirm with the user if the profiles meet the project’s requirements or need further adjustments.”