Pride and Prejudice and Personas

How “Pride and Prejudice” could have turned out with a little empathy and user personas

“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.” — Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

It is also a truth universally acknowledged by designers that unless you try to know or understand your users, you’re doomed to failure (or at least major setback). The whole idea behind user experience design is building products and services that meet the needs of the users, not just the creators. A fact that crossed my mind when watching the 2005 film adaptation of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice for the millionth time (only slightly exaggerating).

In this classic romantic story set in England’s Regency period, the Bennet daughters find themselves falling in and out of love at the encouragement of their overbearing mother.

Mrs. Bennet, the mother of 5 daughters, is comically obsessed with marrying each girl off — preferably to very wealthy men. Throughout the plot, Mrs. Bennet pushes her daughters onto the many bachelors they cross paths with, with varying success. By the end of the story, 3 out of the 5 of her daughters are married; but not without nearly losing one to public disgrace and inciting plenty of emotional turmoil for the others.

Watching this all play out got me to thinking. If Mrs. Bennet had taken time to understand the men she so tenaciously hunted as future son-in-laws, would she have been able to marry off all of her daughters without so much drama?

As matchmaking then was more about suitable marriages and had less emphasis on love matches, my short answer to this is; yes. If Mrs. Bennet tried to understand the potential suitors a little more, and tried to tailor her actions towards what they wanted, then perhaps the story would have gone a bit smoother.

But how, you may ask, would someone like Mrs. Bennet do such a thing? I cordially introduce you to the topic of user personas.

What are user personas?

To understand why Mrs. Bennet could have benefited from user personas, lets look at exactly what they are.