A website design persona is quite simply a fictional person who embodies a group of people that you would like to visit and use your website. A persona is a collated potted summary of their characteristics, needs and motivations so you may get an insight into their website buying behaviour.
Once you understand that persona group you can build and design a website that best fits their needs, create a user experience that plots out simple journeys for them to access relevant information speedily.
We all know different people have different needs, and by creating these thumbnail descriptions for these types of people you can take create a website that is more engaging and inviting for them to purchase.
persona profiles
10 tips to create a website design personas
1. Create a positioning statement – ask what is the purpose of your website, what are you offering and how can they access it, how does the design and content help personas achieve a task, satisfy a purchase need?
2, Set your targets – consider how many more visitors do you want to attract to your website, what do you want to do buy more of, sign up to, take part in online than they have done before
3, Persona groups – which types of people can be grouped together that use your site, these insights help you focus on prioritising key content and design features that they expect to see on your website.
4, Persona attributes – for individuals this means give them a fictional name, how old are they, what do they look like (fictional photo), what is their gender and family status, what type of education did they receive?
5. Professional attributes – what is their job, do they work part of full time, why are they interested in the content of your website, where else are they looking for information, how did they access the site?
6. Technical experience – what devices do they use regularly, what devices do they use most regularly to purchase online, do they use social media, how much time to they spend browsing and purchasing online?
7. Persona motivation – what are they motivated by, what are their personal and professional goals, what tasks are they trying to complete by looking at your website?
8. Persona quote – what quote might define what matters to the persona, focus on what expectations and needs they require from your website, for example: “Peter is
a 55 year old accountant who has been using the internet for two years at home on his desktop, he has never purchased online via mobile and prefers to research instore before he makes a buying decision”.
9. Moodboard – brainstorm and create a moodboard of themed images that represent that persona group, ensure it stays relevant and realistic, so where do they shop, confident using a mobile, eat out, use social media, income spend online, if they make impulse purchases, confused what to buy?
10. Person profile – layout the persona profile in a standard format that you can compare other persona groups (up to three or four), ensure it is in an easy to read, logical format, include if they are a new, existing, or long term loyal customer.
Personas help you to design the best user experiences, customer journeys and define touchpoint mapping for your website. By assessing persona behaviour and motivations you can conduct a content audit to identify the gaps to meet their needs quickly and efficiently.
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