Using personas for Writing

[Dcrux]

I was reading how Best Buy profiles and caters to different customer types. By better understanding customer segments, you cater to their desires and sell more. Interaction designers use personas and marketers often develop profiles.

There is no reason you can't Create personas to represent the groups you are writing to.

With style sheets and basic interaction techniques, you can develop pages which serve two or more persona groups. For example, if one persona simply scans a catalog, offer short description and picture which expand when clicked. Then those segments who need more content are accomodated.

You can't create elastic personas, bending and molding a fictional character simple to confirm the assumptions alread made. Jeffrey Veen terms those personas unbacked by research "The designer's imaginary friends." They don't represent the research and observation necessary to understand the different segments visiting a site.

Most sites are created to meet the goals of an unidentified, unresearched generic visitor. Websites don't attract "a market." Even a targeted site may get two or more groups with different wants and buying preferences. The big mistake is believing customers are industry insiders, where content is the company talking to itself, about itself.

Personas can help you design content for the client's customers -- the real people who are going to make a site work.

Reconciling market segments and personas Personas seem simple, which is why many companies mess them up. This article is valuable for distinguishing between marketing profiles and personas you can use for design.

The MP3 Player Personality Test segments users by how they use the product. How many sites offer high/low bandwith versions (essentially a second, expensive website) -- as if that meant anything other than more nonsense or less. The personality test Commuter profile leads to a page describing what a commuter is and asks you questions to confirm it.