Ruth — AC-04

Persona family: The Recurrent Sufferer Tier: Free Platform: Web — five-year-old Windows laptop (desktop, 150% browser zoom) Experience stage: Active

Who She Is

Ruth is in her late 60s, practical and no-nonsense, and recently heard the words "panic attacks" from her doctor for the first time. She uses a five-year-old Windows laptop with her browser zoomed to 150% and large system fonts — not as an accessibility exercise, but because that is how her computer works.

She learned the app in one sitting and expects it to keep working exactly the same way. She narrates plainly, with dry warmth, and has no patience for jargon, cramped targets, or apps that assume a phone.

What She Wants

• Read her plan and log episodes without strain. Large type, visible targets, no scrolling hunts.
• Understand what her doctor told her. The education page in plain language, not clinical pamphlet-speak.
• Consistency. The app working the same way every visit is not boring to her — it is the requirement.

How She Uses the App

Ruth has logged six episodes since her diagnosis, intensities 4–7, from her living-room desktop the same evening while it's fresh. Her safety plan has one contact (her daughter), her daily medication, and a note: "sit down, feet flat, call Karen."

Her browser zoom is 150% with a large system font, and the plan's contacts render in type she can read without glasses. She uses keyboard tab navigation and completes the physiological sigh flow most often — no held counts to track.

What She Needs from the App

• Zoom-safe layout everywhere. 150% zoom with no clipped content and no horizontal scrolling — on the plan view most of all, because that's the screen she reads mid-attack.
• Large targets. 48px minimum, keyboard navigation, no small-control dependencies, no pinch or drag-only gestures.
• Plain language. No jargon in the plan editor, the education page, or anywhere else.
• Full export on Free. She brings her episode history to her doctor appointments; the export is hers on every tier.

Design Implications

Ruth is the honest test of the app's accessibility contract. If the plan view needs scrolling to show contacts, if a target is smaller than 48px, if zoom clips the pacer — Ruth is the user who finds it, because her setup is the least forgiving in the cast. Her budget laptop is a second test: the app has to work on old hardware and slow connections, not just modern phones.