Summary: Review accessibility user stories and personas, and share them with your team during design and development to build empathy and gain a better understanding of the people you’re serving.
What is a user story?
A user story is a short and simple description of a single user (often of a real-life user from their own perspective)and their unique needs, goals, and motivations. Their story may align with other people with similar needs or goals, or it may be unique to them. User stories encourage empathy and understanding, though because user stories represent just one user, we can’t apply their wants and needs to all users.
What is a persona?
Personas are fictional characters formed from synthesized data to describe a category of users who share common goals and characteristics. Personas, though fictional, are often named to help encourage empathy during the design and development process. For example, instead of referring to "the user," we can refer to "Ferris the Front End Engineer". Personas can give us a better understanding of the people we're building for, and may be useful for inspiration.
What's the difference?
User stories are short glimpses into the lives of real people, sharing their unique lived experiences. Personas are fictional characters, based on goals and behaviors that a user might have, but don't necessarily represent any particular user. Both can be used to drive empathy and understanding, but it's important to know the differences. Explore how they can both be helpful tools depending on your goals with some additional resources.
More resources
Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) personas
Melissa Wantland shares the experiences of people with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) and the different ways their lives have been affected
Cognitive and learning disabilities personas
Five personas with people who are neurodivergent and/or have developmental or learning disabilities in the Cognitive Inclusion Hub.
Day in the life program user stories
Day in the Life highlights underrepresented voices and perspectives from Google C&C products Users (including but not limited to Workspace).
Build with Bia
Community-rooted, persona-centered narrative of a young Black Brazilian woman with disabilities as she navigates her journey of growing up in Brazil