Redesign: Second Meeting, ‘Personas Part I’
About the Meeting
The second web advisory committee meeting took place on Thursday, April 8. In preparation for the personas exercise, the committee was asked to fill out this survey. In addition, all staff and faculty had an opportunity to participate.
Agenda
I. Survey Results: 94 responses to how CLC is perceived and what sets CLC apart.
II. Group Exercise: Who are our target audiences?
III. Group Exercise: What do our target audiences want from us?
(Matching types of persons with their goals, actions, problems)
View the Presentation
View the presentation that was used in the meeting.
Included are photos from the actual brainstorming activity.
Background Information
This meeting will include developing “personas” for the users of our web site. This is an important task because it gives us a foundation for tackling a whole range of issues relating to the web site—the content needed, the “voice” or language used, the navigation structure, etc. Everything starts with clearly understanding the audiences we are trying to reach and serve.
Why Personas?
Personas will help to bring focus, empathy, consensus and help us to make better decisions more efficiently.
What makes a Persona?
Example of Persona Template
- Name + Role
- Individual’s goals, tasks or questions.
- Demographical differentiators (location, age, income, etc.)
- Information they may already know about the College.
- What objectives we want them to be able to accomplish.
How to Get Started
Personas already exist, so we don’t need to “create” them, we just need to “discover” and “define” them. Many of us work with them every day. We just need to take all those people and based on common objectives categorize them into groups.
Before the next meeting on Thursday, April 8th, think about the people you meet and the questions you receive and give that individual a role and note their goal, task, or question. After we have all these individuals, we will group them based on common needs and form a persona for each group. So talk to your peers, take notes, and come to the next meeting prepared with your list of individuals and their goals, tasks, or common questions.
Examples: Person + Goal, Activity, Action or Problem
New Student who wants to attend CLC but doesn’t know where to start.
Student that needs to access Blackboard for an online class.
Professional who wants to improve current job skills by taking weekend classes.
Individual who wants more information about a specific event.
This exercise is based on the UIE Virtual Seminar, “The Power of Ad Hoc Personas: Truly Practical Methods to Get Your Organization on the Same Page” by Tamara Adlin.
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