Alan Cooper
"Father of Interaction Design", inventor of the Persona methodology, making software truly serve people
Alan Cooper (born 1952) is a foundational figure in interaction design, called the 'Father of Interaction Design.' The programming interface logic he developed in the 1980s was purchased by Microsoft and became the core of Visual Basic — one of the best-selling programming languages in history. This experience gave him deep insight into a design culture centered on technical logic rather than user needs, driving him to become an advocate for interaction design. His most important methodological contribution is the 'Persona' — creating a fictional but research-based specific character for a target user group, shifting design decisions from designing for 'the average user' to designing for 'specific Margaret.' He founded Cooper design consultancy in 1992, published About Face in 1995 (later retitled About Face: The Essentials of Interaction Design), which became the standard textbook for interaction design. His core criticism: the software industry is 'an asylum run by inmates (programmers)' — technologists build software according to their own logic rather than user needs, causing widespread user suffering.
Methodologies
- Six-Step Persona Creation Process - From user interviews to usable Personas, six clear steps transform user research into a powerful design decision tool.
- Goal-Directed Design Process - First ask 'what goal does the user want to achieve,' then 'what features are needed' — goals are superior to features, not the other way around.
Key decisions and timeline
- Born in California, USA
- Began Professional Programming Career
- Sold Ruby Visual Programming Language to Microsoft, Becoming Core of Visual Basic
Beliefs and mental models
- Belief 1 - Users' real purpose in using software is not to 'complete a task' but to achieve a deeper life goal. Cooper distinguishes three goal levels: life goals (who the user wants to be), end goals (what the user wants to accomplish in this session), and experience goals (how the user wants to feel during use). Good interaction design must understand and serve all three goal levels, not merely optimize task completion efficiency.
- Belief 2 - When you design for 'all users,' you are effectively designing for no specific person. Persona creates a fictional specific character based on real user research, giving the design team a genuine 'reference point.' Designing for '32-year-old marketing manager Margaret who uses Excel daily to manage client data but doesn't understand macros' is much more concrete than designing for 'intermediate office users,' and design decisions become correspondingly clearer.
- Belief 3 - Cooper's core criticism is that the software industry is 'an asylum run by inmates' — technologists are product decision-makers who build software according to their own mental models rather than users' mental models. This leads to pervasive 'feature creep,' complex interfaces, and interaction patterns that make users feel stupid. The solution is not to train users but to fundamentally change the software development process so interaction designers define product behavior before technologists.
- Model 1
- Model 2
- Model 3