The User Is Always Right: Making Personas Work for Your Site

Slide 2: Decisions should be based on users Knowledge about users must be actionable Learning about users requires direct contact You are not your user Business results depend on satisfying users 2 Copyright © 2007 Molecular, Inc. | www.molecular.com | Linked by Isobar

Slide 9: Personas lead to better decisions Personas for Strategy Framework for business decisions, offerings, channel usage, features Personas for Marketing Framework for marketing campaigns, branding, messaging, market research Personas for Design Information architecture, interaction design, visual design, content development, user testing 9 Copyright © 2007 Molecular, Inc. | www.molecular.com | Linked by Isobar

Slide 11: The Landscape of User Research and Testing QUALITATIVE (INSIGHTS) Collages Diary/Journal Studies User Interviews Shadow Shopping (Shop-Along) Usability Testing Focus Groups Field Studies User Advisory (Contextual Inquiry) Panel Eye Tracking User Reports Participatory Design Intercepts Card Sorting BEHAVIORS GOALS & ATTITUDES (ACTUAL) (ASPIRATIONAL) Customer Support Data Automated Usability Testing User Surveys Site Traffic/ Log File Analysis A/B Testing QUANTITATIVE (VALIDATION) 11 Copyright © 2007 Molecular, Inc. | www.molecular.com | Linked by Isobar

Slide 13: User Interviews Cross-section of online customers, offline customers, • non-customers, other audiences 15 interviews is a good starting point • Informal, loosely structured conversations by Isobar • 13 Copyright © 2007 Molecular, Inc. | www.molecular.com | Linked

Slide 14: User Interviews: Topics History with the company • Intro to company, usage/purchase history, early impressions • Domain experience and knowledge • Domain expertise, competitors, share of wallet • Goals and behaviors • Needs/triggers for usage, typical process, channel usage, • feature and content usage, gaps, wish list Attitudes and motivators • Description of experience, likes/dislikes, influencers, • psychological drivers Opportunities • Reaction to new ideas, features, content, improvements • Observation of actual behavior (field studies, usability tests) • 14 Copyright © 2007 Molecular, Inc. | www.molecular.com | Linked by Isobar

Slide 16: Segmentation: Marketing vs. Personas Marketing Personas Age Behaviors Income Goals Gender Other Attitudes demographics Sell to people Understand how people will actually use the site 16 Copyright © 2007 Molecular, Inc. | www.molecular.com | Linked by Isobar

Slide 17: Segmentation by Goals What are different people trying to do on the site? Hierarchy of Goals Be happy Motivator Be independent Motivator Buy a house Goal Understand process Need Learn about points Task Other goals: Get a mortgage loan Buy commercial property • • Get insurance Find an apartment • • Find a moving company Sell a house • • 17 Copyright © 2007 Molecular, Inc. | www.molecular.com | Linked by Isobar

Slide 18: Segmentation by Behaviors and Attitudes How do users differ based on what they do or how they think? Behaviors: Attitudes: Frequency of real Knowledge about • • estate activity real estate Frequency of visits to Motivators affecting • • the site users’ likelihood to buy or sell Channel usage for • various needs Perception of the • company/brand Use of competitors • Etc. • 18 Copyright © 2007 Molecular, Inc. | www.molecular.com | Linked by Isobar

Slide 19: Segmentation by Behaviors and Attitudes Explore different combinations Frequency of real estate activity The risk-taker who thinks The pro who wants to he knows more than he use site tools and doesn’t actually does need help The novice who needs a The smart one who lot of guidance wants validation of what she already knows Knowledge about real estate 19 Copyright © 2007 Molecular, Inc. | www.molecular.com | Linked by Isobar

Slide 20: Segmentation by Behaviors and Attitudes FedEx segmentation Level of preparation Me Desired level of personal interaction 20 Copyright © 2007 Molecular, Inc. | www.molecular.com | Linked by Isobar

Slide 21: Segmentation: The Tests Your segments should… Explain key differences you’ve • observed among users Be different enough from • each other Feel like real people • Be described quickly • Cover all users • Clearly affect decision making • 21 Copyright © 2007 Molecular, Inc. | www.molecular.com | Linked by Isobar

Slide 24: Surveys: Who Cross-section of users • Goal: 100+ completions per segment • 17,000 emails @ 3% completion rate = 500 completions • Incentives and reminders can boost completion rate • 24 Copyright © 2007 Molecular, Inc. | www.molecular.com | Linked by Isobar

Slide 25: Surveys: What Questions to gather data on segmentation attributes • (dependent variables) Goal for visiting site (buy hom find apartment, etc.) e, • Frequency of site visits for each possible user goal • Importance of each possible goal to the user • Knowledge of real estate • Previous real estate experiences • User’s self-perception of real estate expertise • Questions to test the segmentation against • (independent variables) Other behaviors (site/channel usage, feature usage, etc.) • Other attitudes (toward company, about self, etc.) • New features and content to test • 25 Copyright © 2007 Molecular, Inc. | www.molecular.com | Linked by Isobar

Slide 26: Surveys: What Recommended order of questions: Current goals, usage, and behavior, including channel • usage History with the site and company • User of or importance of existing features and content • Satisfaction with existing features and content • Importance of new features and content • Psychographic questions • Demographic questions • 26 Copyright © 2007 Molecular, Inc. | www.molecular.com | Linked by Isobar

Slide 27: Site Traffic Analysis Entry pages • Referrers • Exit pages • Common paths • Feature usage • Search terms • Conversion rate • Duration • Frequency • 27 Copyright © 2007 Molecular, Inc. | www.molecular.com | Linked by Isobar

Slide 28: CRM Data Annual spending • Frequency of purchase • Products or services purchased • Channel usage • Customer support usage • Length of time as a customer • 28 Copyright © 2007 Molecular, Inc. | www.molecular.com | Linked by Isobar

Slide 29: Quantitative Nirvana: Complete User Portrait Survey data • What the user says What the What the user is CRM data • user does worth Self-reported • survey data Site traffic analysis • CRM data • Self-reported survey2007 Molecular, Inc. Copyright © data • 29 | www.molecular.com | Linked by Isobar

Slide 38: Scenarios Francis and Michael have agreed that she’ll take charge of learning more about the home-buying process. She goes online, does a Google search for “Atlanta real estate,” and follows a link to the site’s home page. She sees that she can search for houses from the home page, so just for fun, she does a quick Atlanta search to see what kinds of houses show up. There are lots of houses in many different neighborhoods, and she easily narrows her results down to the area where she and Michael live, using a map. There are still many results, and she’s not quite sure which search options to use to narrow the search further. Then she notices a link for first- time home buyers and follows, it hoping for basic how-to information. The link takes Francis to a step-by-step tutorial that explains the whole process, and she immediately feels like she’s found the right site from which to begin her house search. She carefully reads some articles for first-time home buyers, taking notes as she reads. She bookmarks other articles she wants to go back and read later. She also comes across the site’s calculator and starts trying different combinations of numbers to find out what she and Michael can afford. She particularly likes the glossary of terms so that she can finally figure out what “points” are and learn more about different types of mortgages. After an hour and a half of reading, her brain is full, and she shuts her computer down for the day, feeling like she got an excellent start. The next day, she comes back to the site to look up information specific to Atlanta neighborhoods and finds lots of information on each. She’s able to focus on five neighborhoods that look particularly good. The fun begins that night, when she takes Michael through all that she has learned, and they set up a regular schedule for looking at online house listings. 38 Copyright © 2007 Molecular, Inc. | www.molecular.com | Linked by Isobar

Slide 44: Other Ideas for Keeping Personas Alive Posters • Tchotchkes • Day-in-the-life photos, audio diaries, etc. • Role-playing • Quizzes • Staple to documents • Email addresses • 44 Copyright © 2007 Molecular, Inc. | www.molecular.com | Linked by Isobar

Slide 47: Features and Functionality: Brainstorming Francis’ Goals Possible Features and Content Business Objectives Learn about the Introductory how-to articles Visit the site often home-buying Glossary of jargon Register for email process alerts and newsletters Videos and podcasts Find out what she Subscribe to premium Success stories can afford services Q&A with experts Discover what Recommend the site Message board areas of Atlanta to others are desirable Blogs Find a house that Rent vs. own calculator matches her Local experts to call/meet criteria Checklists to print Interactive quizzes Common mistakes Animated cartoons Book recommendations 47 Copyright © 2007 Molecular, Inc. | www.molecular.com | Linked by Isobar

Slide 50: Structure: Task Analysis Search for houses from home page 1. Enter location by city and state, or zip code a. Enter price range b. Enter number of bedrooms and/or bathrooms c. Submit search d. View and narrow results 2. Browse first page of results: photo, price, address, basic stats, and 1. description Click to show results on map 2. Click map to narrow results to one neighborhood 3. Browse new results 4. Read tutorial 3. Click link for first-time home buyers 1. Read landing page for learning area 2. Click teaser for step-by-step tutorial 3. And so on… 50 Copyright © 2007 Molecular, Inc. | www.molecular.com | Linked by Isobar

Slide 51: Structure: Use Cases Search for Houses Level: User goal Primary actor: Francis the First-Time Home Buyer Preconditions: Francis arrives at home page or House Search landing page • Main success scenario: Francis enters city and state or zip code. 7. System uses auto-completion to show options below search field as Francis 8. types. System shows up to 10 matching city names in order of number of homes for sale in each city. Francis can click a city name to select that city. Francis selects minimum and maximum price values from drop-down menus. 9. validates selected values. 10.System selects number of bedrooms and bathrooms from drop-down menus. 11.Francis submits search. 12.Francis validates required fields before submitting query. 13.System 51 Copyright © 2007 Molecular, Inc. | www.molecular.com | Linked by Isobar

Slide 56: Content Articles or product descriptions • Instructional text • Documentation and help • Error messages • Imagery • Sound • Video • 56 Copyright © 2007 Molecular, Inc. | www.molecular.com | Linked by Isobar

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