Creating great user experiences begins with understanding everyone who engages with a product or system. While “the user” is often the primary focus in UX, system design brings in another key term: the Actor. An Actor refers to any external entity that interacts with a system, whether human or not. This idea, borrowed from fields like use case modelling, encourages teams to look beyond just users and consider all who interact.

Identifying Actors is crucial for effective UX research and design. It ensures that the team takes all perspectives into account during the design and testing phases.

In this article, we’ll explain what an Actor is. We’ll look at the different types of Actors and why it’s essential to recognize them for UX. Finally, we’ll list the advantages and disadvantages of this concept.

What is an Actor?

In system design, especially in Use Case modeling, an Actor is an outside entity. This entity interacts with the system to reach a goal. Imagine the system as a box with defined boundaries. Anything outside this box that needs to interact with it is considered an Actor.

Key traits of an Actor:

• They are external to the system
• They initiate actions or receive information
• They have specific goals when interacting with the system

In UX, using the Actor concept helps us expand our view. It covers more than just human users and includes:

Human Actors: People who use the system directly. These could include customers, administrators, support agents, and more. Each role represents a different type of human Actor.

System Actors: Other systems, software, APIs, databases, or devices that interact with your system. These Actors exchange data or trigger processes.

Unlike the term “user,” which often implies a single human, “Actor” is broader. Knowing the different types of Actors helps designers see who uses the system. This understanding is key for creating better user experiences.

How to Identify Different Actors

Identifying Actors involves asking the right questions early in the project. This helps define the system’s scope and requirements clearly.

The main types of Actors you should recognize are:

Human Actors (User Roles):

• End customers using the product
• Administrators managing the system
• Moderators handling user content
• Internal staff, such as sales, support, or marketing teams
• Specific user categories based on status, like premium versus free users

System Actors:

• Payment gateways handling transactions
• External APIs providing services like maps or weather
• Internal systems need to share data
• Hardware devices such as IoT sensors

Good questions to uncover all Actors:

• Who will use this system directly?
• What different types of users exist?
• Who benefits from the system’s outputs?
• What other systems or devices will interact with this one?
• Who is responsible for maintaining the system?

By systematically answering these questions, you build a strong Actor list. This lays the groundwork for grasping the system’s needs, roles, and goals.

Why Understanding Actors is Key for UX

Identifying Actors brings real benefits to UX design:

Defines the Project Scope: It clarifies what is included and excluded from the system’s boundaries. Helps set clear expectations.

Reveals Different Needs: Each Actor interacts for different reasons and with different goals. Recognizing these differences leads to more complete requirement gathering.

Improves User Research: Understanding your actors helps you plan interviews, surveys, and usability tests that show fundamental user roles.

Builds Better Personas and Journeys: Actors serve as the starting point for creating detailed personas and mapping user journeys.

Supports Interface and Access Design: Understanding Actor types helps design tailored interfaces and permissions.

Structures of Use Cases: Use cases become more effective when framed around an Actor’s goal, like “As an administrator, I want to manage user accounts.”

Ensures Comprehensive Testing: Testing plans can target each Actor to ensure the system works correctly for every type of interactor.

Identifying Actors early ensures you do not just design for the most obvious user, but for the entire ecosystem.

The Pros and Cons of Actor Analysis in UX

Using Actors offers clear advantages but also requires a few considerations.

Advantages:

• Brings a clear and structured way to map interactions
• Helps define system boundaries and interfaces
• Supports building complete requirements early
• Reduces the risk of missing critical user types
• Encourages role-based design for better user experiences
• Strengthens test planning
• Accounts for both human and non-human interactors

Challenges:

• The word “Actor” can sound technical or distant compared to “user” or “persona.”
• Simply listing Actors is not enough without deeper research into motivations and behaviors.
• Actor analysis focuses more on goals than detailed task flows or emotional states.
• Grouping users into broad Actor types can sometimes hide essential differences.

Actor identification is a strong starting point. However, it needs to be followed by more detailed UX research to create a full, empathetic understanding of real user needs.

Why Actors Matter for Better UX Design

Actors form a key part of how UX teams think about user-centered design. Rather than concentrating on just one user, we look at all external entities, including both human roles and connected systems.

Finding actors early helps teams grasp the system’s scope. It shows different goals and needs, so all key user groups are included. This method builds a better base for making personas, journey maps, and usability tests.

Although “Actor” might seem technical, its underlying practice is very much about people. It ensures that designs consider every key participant in the ecosystem. By blending Actor analysis with thorough research methods, UX professionals can create more inclusive, intuitive, and prosperous digital products.