We make the research actionable by creating a set of communication materials to facilitate conversations about the user audience and their needs and desires. We model key behavior patterns observed during research with a set of personas (descriptions of archetypal users) and examine usage contexts and the opportunities they present.

These personas provide a consistent conceptual thread throughout the project. We use personas to focus our attention when we're establishing a direction and generating design ideas, and to test our ideas before they're evolved enough to share with real users. We can move the design forward with confidence, knowing we can trace every decision back to a disciplined understanding of real people.