As with personas, a group of mindsets should collectively account for a full audience, though they usually remain agnostic of a specific product or service. The detail behind each mindset includes user attitudes, behaviours and needs, as well as the drivers for these (which may vary) and potential evolution of the mindset in the future.

presenting mindsets on continuums reflects the fluidity with which users can move between groups, as attitudes and behaviours shift over time or in different contexts.

the HMRC mindsets team reflect on the past year of using mindsets as part of their research and design toolkit. They cover why they started using mindsets, the challenges faced along the way, and the successes of the methodology.

Mindsets are often used in the private sector to inform design by understanding varying attitudes, behaviours and motivations of users within a particular context. Mindsets are not static and set, but rather fluid and dynamic. When complete, they suggest the different needs people have, while acknowledging that these could shift.

Mindsets are a type of user profiling that help us identify and understand users’ states of mind during different life circumstances, which can be translated into building more user-centric products and services.

They are particularly helpful when designing a digital service with one core function that serves a wide range of users who could have overlapping needs and ways of thinking at different points of using the service.

mindsets focus on how people’s thoughts can evolve before, during and after the use of a service.

Mindsets are a powerful tool. Like personas, they can be used to help stakeholders visualize and empathize with your user, as well as to map users’ experiences and identify pain points.

Mindset Segmentations are broad enough to identify behavioural tendencies without prescribing personas with a name, age, gender or any other fixed demographic. Rather, the audience is split into four archetypes which are based on contrasting emotional needs and wants.

Mindsets look at the behavioural tensions of users which help us understand how they may approach certain tasks. By uncovering and understanding the linking of these tensions we can much better understand users.

unlike personas, mindsets can simply identify opportunity areas to focus design thinking