YOU ARE NOT YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE?

APRIL OSMANOF @aprilosmanof

MY NAME IS APRIL OSMANOF Nice to meet you.

Hello!

For starters, I’m likely not your target audience either.I work at Fastspot, an interactive agency with a focus on

higher education websites in Baltimore, Maryland.

A Little About Me

Here are just a few schools I have been lucky enough to work with

don t forgetThe school’s website is not for us.

?

There is Somebody on the other side.

A Good Website Is like a Good Conversation

Focus on YOUR USERs

How can you best anticipate their needs?

The tricky thing about .edu sites is that they have a lot of target audiences.

Here are some of the big ones.

SO WHO ARE EDU WEBSITES FOR?

PROSPECTIVE STUDENTS

ALUMNI & DONORS

PROSPECTIVEFACULTY & STAFF

PROSPECTIVE & CURRENT STUDENTS’ PARENTS

REGULATORY BODIES

CURRENTSTUDENTS

MEDIA

PROSPECTIVE STUDENTS

ALUMNI & DONORS

PROSPECTIVEFACULTY & STAFF

PROSPECTIVE & CURRENT STUDENTS’ PARENTS

REGULATORY BODIES

CURRENTSTUDENTS

MEDIA

For the next hour, let’s just focus on the biggest one.

PROSPECTIVE STUDENTSSPECIFICALLY, AGES 14-18

What we want to say to them

But do we know what they want to hear from us?

We think we know

To Be a Successwe need to always know who we are talking to

and what they want and need.

Personas to the rescue

These archetypes can be a great way to help you consider and better understand your users’ needs.

guide decisions about your site

Find out what’s working, and what’s not.

Let personas help

GOALSBEHAVIORS MINDSETS NEEDS

PERSONASCreating personas for your target audiences

can help you track your audiences likely:

COMMUNICATE INTERNALLY

REMAIN FOCUSEDON YOUR USER

MAKE A BETTERWEBSITE

PERSONASCan help you…

PERSONASHelp you to:

AND

Don’t project your own mental model on your user’s needs.

Help create a face for your user, so you can better empathize with them.

Get a quick reality check on what they are likely to do or seek out on your site.

Identify problems you couldn’t see.

Surface important edge cases that also need to be considered.

GET TO KNOW YOUR USER

COMMUNICATE INTERNALLY

REMAIN FOCUSEDON YOUR USER

MAKE A BETTERWEBSITE

PERSONASHelp you to:

AND

Get everyone to share a consistent idea of your target audiences.

Help your team remember the unique needs and wants of the target audiences, especially as they diverge from their own.

Set up a system of checks and balances to ensure proposed solutions meet the needs of your users.

GET EVERYONE ON THE SAME PAGE

COMMUNICATE INTERNALLY

REMAIN FOCUSEDON YOUR USER

MAKE A BETTERWEBSITE

Help focus your time and efforts on the right content and features.

Reexamine the language choices made throughout your site.

Identify effective tasks and content to test.

Set the scope and goals of future projects.

IMPROVE YOUR CURRENT SITEOR START FRESH

COMMUNICATE INTERNALLY

REMAIN FOCUSEDON YOUR USER

MAKE A BETTERWEBSITE

HELP YOU INNOVATEThey make your website more useful and can give you a competitive edge.

Personas

But How?So, how do you make a persona that can help you do all of this?

THOMAS, AGE 16Thomas, is a junior in high school. He is beginning to look seriously at colleges. He’s a good student and excels at math and science, but he’s thinking about going to school for art.

Thomas loved his high school art classes. He’s

thinking about majoring in photography, but

he’s worried about whether that will leave him

sad, lonely, and unemployed. He comes from a

small town, so big city life sounds both exciting

and intimidating.

He also really loves ice cream sandwiches.

ANATOMY OF A PERSONA

Deciding to go to art

school means I’m

looking for a

completely different

kind of education.

“

THOMAS, AGE 16

ANATOMY OF A PERSONA

GATHERING INFORMATION

DIGGING DEEPER

APPLYING

GETTING IN

BECOMING A STUDENT

ANATOMY OF A PERSONA

EMOTIONAL STATE

QUESTIONS

ACTIONS

GATHERING INFORMATION

Having always assumed he’d go to a traditional university, Thomas doesn’t know much about art school, but he’s excited to learn.

• What are the top schools in my field?

• Do I have to know my major right away?

• What types of programs are available?

• How will art school be different from a liberal arts school?

• Will I fit in with other art students?

• Visit the website

• Speak to peers and advisors

• Grab an ice cream sandwich out of the fridge

ANATOMY OF A PERSONA

QUESTIONS

ACTIONS

DIGGING DEEPER

Thomas is narrowing down his list of schools. He’s learned more about what he wants and is now more discerning.

• What kind of career opportunities will I have?

• What kinds of merit- and need-based aid will be available to me?

• Does the cafeteria serve ice cream

sandwiches on a semi-regular basis?

• Look into curricula and course catalogs

• Read forums concerning programs of interest

• Request information for particular programs

EMOTIONAL STATE

ANATOMY OF A PERSONA

QUESTIONS

ACTIONS

APPLYING

Thomas is serious about attending the school now and wants to get through the application process quickly.

• What should I include in my portfolio and

how do I submit it?

• What kind of transcripts or

recommendations are needed?

• Should I apply for Early Decision?

• When will I hear back?

• Contact admissions counselor

• Apply online

• Celebrate with an ice cream sandwich

EMOTIONAL STATE

Make it work

Create a real character and give them a past.

Knowing their narrative will help you understand how they might interact with your site.

Give them problems, worries, likes, dislikes.

Know what your personas expect from you. What will they be affected by? What might they hate or love about your site?

Good personas need clear business goals to drive them.

Do you want more students to visit? Do you want more students to choose you over a competitor?

GIVE THEM A STORY

TRUTH IN SPECIFICITY

CONSIDERBUSINESS GOALS

Gather real life stories

Don’t just use your imagination. The more reality you add into your personas the better.

THE PROBLEM WITH USER RESEARCH

User research can take up a lot of time, making it expensive and difficult to squeeze into a busy schedule.

Serious user researchrequires recruiting and incentivizing users, coordinating times,

meeting with people, synthesizing information, reporting what you’ve found, and making sense of it all.

good newsYou don’t need to conduct really intensive research

to create a useful persona. Doing user research through personas can be cheap. Even free!

The

The Cool ThinG about college Students

They are all around you.

Just TALK TO THEMBase your personas off of real humans.

GIVE A FACE TO YOUR USERS

LOOK THEM IN THE EYES

SEE THEIR NEEDS IN ACOMPELLING WAY

GET OUT THERE.

Talk to anyone who will let you.

Listen, take notes, and record your conversations.

Ask the right questions.

Say thank you, and provide incentives,

if you can.

If you have emails, surveys can help you

gain insight.

GET OUT THERE.

Talk to anyone who will let you.

Listen, take notes, and record your conversations.

Ask the right questions.

Say thank you, and provide incentives,

if you can.

If you have emails, surveys can help you

gain insight.

GET OUT THERE.

Talk to anyone who will let you.

Listen, take notes, and record your conversations.

Ask the right questions.

Say thank you, and provide incentives,

if you can.

If you have emails, surveys can help you

gain insight.

GET OUT THERE.

Talk to anyone who will let you.

Listen, take notes, and record your conversations.

Ask the right questions.

Say thank you, and provide incentives,

if you can.

If you have emails, surveys can help you

gain insight.

GET OUT THERE.

Talk to anyone who will let you.

Listen, take notes, and record your conversations.

Ask the right questions.

Say thank you, and provide incentives,

if you can.

If you have emails, surveys can help you

gain insight.

A Good questionCan change everything.

The right questionCan often be the first step in innovation.

AND

Bad conversations

Relying heavily on assumptions

Retaining a fixed mindset

Only solving the problems you already know exist

Wasting everybody’s time

BAD QUESTIONS WILL LEAD TO

Gather better information

Connect with your users in a meaningful way

Better understand your users needs

Identify problems you can’t see

Do more solution-orientated problem solving

GOOD QUESTIONS WILL HELP YOU

TYPES OF QUESTIONSOPEN QUESTIONS

Will get you answers that require more thought on your users’ part.

You run the risk of having your question be too open.

Can get you to unexpected places, but they can also lead you in the wrong direction.

CLOSED QUESTIONS

Will get you very clear answers. Your users have to answer with a “yes” or “no.”

But they are not necessarily a better type of question to ask.

Especially if you are asking questions you already know the answer to.

NO Leading QuestionsBe careful not to phrase your questions

to get the answers you want.

Don t make assumptionsRemember, you are not the target audience.

Don’t assume that you know what they need or want.

BUT?

What people say they want

isn’t always what they actually want.

Listen Carefullya good question is useless if you

don’t hear the answer.

Take Your Timedrawing conclusions can take just as

much time as conducting the research.

? ?Try test try again

if your research or personas lead you to a change, try it out, and iterate until you’re satisfied.

go back to your audience

find the same people you talked to before, and see if your solution worked.

user testing on the Cheap

standing over a shoulder and watching carefully can be incredibly illuminating.

Some helpful tools

calendly.com usepowwow.com

Set up time slots and book a consolidated block of user tests or interviews. These take time, so give yourself a chunk of non-interrupted time.

usertesting.com trymyui.com

With remote testing, you can set up a test, send it to many people, and watch the tests later. It’s not free, but it can be helpful

docs.google.com rainbow spreadsheets

Set up a script for interviews and user tests, thank yourself later. And create a rainbow spreadsheet to keep results and findings organized.

KEEP A SCHEDULE

REMOTETESTING

STAY ORGANIZED

THANK YOU!aprilosmanof@

DOWNLOADABLE TEMPLATE

www. fastspot.com/confab-personas.zip