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Different ways to identify user segments — roles, demographics, need states and personas.

Users are at the core of UX research and design, and there are many ways to identify or group them.

Kate Conrick
UX Collective
Published in
8 min readJun 11, 2020

Decorative image of several different faceless avatars showing different demographics
Avatars created by the awesomely talented Cécile L. Parker

I find I get a lot of questions about how to group them, and why you might use different types of user identification. Below are the some of most common methods used throughout industry and government, along with short examples to help you understand each approach.

Roles

Roles frame what a person is trying to accomplish within a particular context. This could be their job, or their role interacting with a service — such as customer, advisor, or call centre operative.

Roles are sometimes referred to as actors, and when you have a clear idea and shared understanding of the different roles or actors involved in a service, you are better able to define their experience.

Roles help to identify common tasks, motivations and pain points. Roles could intersect with demographic groups or personas.

Some practitioners focus on roles when the products or services they’re working on have different types of users who interact with each other or the service under specific circumstances based on their role. This is…

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Written by Kate Conrick

A Service Designer working to make government a little bit better in Australia. Practicing artist and ceramicist.

Responses (2)

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Hi Kate! I really enjoyed reading your article, especially for your focus on the importance of traning personas in a meaningful and inclusive way.
I would like to recommend you to read about the user cultura, a tool developed by Chen Hao and Annemiek…

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Very good work !!!

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