Why do we need Non-human personas?
Before I dive into the Why? Let's shortly explain what non-human personas are. Non-human personas are a tool used in Life-Centered Design to create an emotional connection with nature and non-human entities. They are a way to understand the needs and perspectives of non-human actants, and they help you create designs that include these actants. Creating a non-human persona involves scientific research, emotional narrative, and communication through various mediums.
Why do we need them in our design practices?
Appropriately done, non-human personas help us understand nature or non-nature in a way that goes beyond written papers and numbers of scientific research. Quantitative research is essential to understand the planet's and humanity's state, but humans need help connecting with scientific data. With the use of abductive research in combination with non-human or non-user personas, we can create an emotional connection that helps us connect.
I don't use traditional user personas often because they are usually general and don't tell you much about user X or client Y. They won't help us design sustainable solutions for the planet & humanity. I will use them, but I am drawing insights with care and will use them primarily for social design challenges. If we want to design for a better planet, we need to include the voice of nature. And you do that using non-human personas.
When you want to create a Non-human persona, you are making a biography of natural life, a plant, an animal or a village, a building or a legal entity while adding an emotional narrative. This goes deeper than a traditional persona and provides more scientific and emotional data. They are a means to truly connect with the topic of the non-human persona and understand nature. The visual below shows how to create an understanding of non-human personas.
In the hands of designers, they are a valuable tool to design for a world where all life can live equally, where there is space for nature, humanity and an economy based on equality.
The Non-human persona provides companies and governments with insights into their negative & positive impact and helps create opportunities to become more sustainable & inclusive or even regenerative. They help them create a better experience for humans and nature.
author: Jeroen Spoelstra
pictures & visual: Jeroen Spoelstra