#gilbanesf Web Engagement: Personas and Molding the Customer Experience

One of the final sessions from last week's Gilbane conference (see our coverage here) in San Francisco focused on Personas, Market Segmentation and User Experience design. Strong assertions were made (e.g., "data without segmentation is crap") and key lessons shared. Here are the highlights and take-aways.

Melissa Casburn of ISITE Design and Randy Woods from non-linear creations were the speakers for the session, which was moderated by the Gilbane Group's Ian Truscott.

Personas: The Basics

A quick overview of the key aspects of personas was delivered. They are:

• Named user types with personal characteristics
• Based on research
• Tied to an organizations' market segmentation strategy

You can have as many persona's as makes sense, but to start put energy into the ones that most directly map to business goals (lead generation, sales, etc.)

Robustness is Key

According to Casburn and Woods the more robust the research backing personas and market segmentation the more likely you are to reach your business goals using them. Not all data is created equal.

There are 3 sources of persona data:

1. Formal Inquiry
   This includes market research, focus groups, 1-on-1 interviews, surveys, and user testing. It is considered the most robust source of persona data.
2. Internal Company Knowledge
   Customer service interactions, sales interactions, web analytics, search logs. This data isn't as strong as formal inquiry.
3. Ambient Data
   This includes social media information, user generated content, etc. This is the least robust and reliable of the data sources.

Developing Useful Personas

Casburn and Woods then described some ideas and methods behind creating effective personas. It's not just enough to have personas defined. A badly thought-out persona can be a negative in reaching business goals:

• Think about what your users want from the site, and how they would go about doing it.
• Determine what the user's motivations and pain points are.
• Recommend content and site features to address those issues.

Most Organizations Want Something from the Visitor

Woods then jumped into a topic that isn't always discussed directly. It's not enough to just look at what the visitor may want, most organizations also want something from the visitor. The site may want to:

• Sell a product
• Convert a visitor into a sales lead
• Convince a visitor to make a donation
• Convert them to a newsletter subscriber
• Have them engage by rating or commenting

Organizations need to define their preferred business outcomes and determine what metrics they can collect to track them. The website should be seen as a negotiating field between the visitor and the organization. Effective personas supported by research and metrics will help guide that visitor to the desired business outcomes.

Levels of User-facing Segmentation

Woods kicked this section off with a quote from a blogger:

Data without Segmentation is Crap

Casburn proceed to lay out some ways for sites to get started with user segmentation.

The Basics: Segmenting by Core Target Audience

If you don't have a lot of research or data to analyze you can start with segmentation by picking your top target audiences and then providing paths through the site that answer their questions and lead them towards the business goals specific to them. Casburn then provided an example of a university site where the the homepage provided different tracks for visitors in the following way (a subset):

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Tags: behavior, gilbanesf, online marketing, personalization, user experience, ux, web engagement, web optimization, wem

One of the final sessions from last week's Gilbane conference (see our coverage here) in San Francisco focused on Personas, Market Segmentation and User Experience design. Strong assertions were made (e.g., "data without segmentation is crap") and key lessons shared. Here are the highlights and take-aways.