Studies in Human Computer Interaction (HCI), User Centered Design (UCD) and User Experience Design (UED) have found that accurate and frequent customer input is essential for a successful software product. Knowing who your customers are, what their environment is like, and what their needs are gives you the information required to plan and design a product.

In this blog post, Mike Long discusses the current trend to design applications for specific users or “personas”. His point is that “focusing on individuals might improve things for one person at the cost of others.” He prefers instead Activity-Centered Design (ACD) that focuses on the activity context in which individuals interact with the product.

This article discusses how the Open University explores the usage of personas, scenarios and narratives as a methodology underpinning the production life-cycle of new learning systems, from conception through to design, development, testing and post production promotion. It explains the personas, scenarios and narrative concepts.