Once we have an idea who our visitors are likely to be, we want to develop detailed profiles of each type. As a general rule, we'll wind up with three or four at most. These profiles should be extremely detailed. They should portray a real person.
This sounds silly to many CEOs but it will really improve your site design if you design for one, specific, and representative person. I came to this from my experience with writing direct mail copy.
Whenever I had a direct mail letter to write, I'd first figure out if my mom was part of the "target market." Then I'd write my letter to my mom. My letters were much better as a result.
The same thing seems to hold with designing web pages and sites. Visitors experience our sites one person at a time and it helps to design with that in mind.
Start by identifying the key visitor groups. Then work up a profile of a representative member of the group.
Some folks like to do this by picking a person who's an actual group member. Let's say it's Tom. We'll ask all our questions for design about Tom. Here are some questions.
- How old is he?
- What kind of computer does she use at work? At home?
- What browser does he use?
- What type of connection does she have from work? From home?
- What kind of language does he use when he talks with us about what we do and what he does?
- Who does she have to go to for decisions?
- What do we know about his Social Style?
- What do we know about her professional or company culture?
Sometimes it's easier to create a composite profile of the most common visitor we expect from a particular group. We'll give her a name. We'll give her a history and a life outside her contact with us.
I've found that the best way to do this is to use a technique that human beings have used for thousands of years -- stories. Stories are the way that human beings remember and use complex knowledge. The profiles we draw of individual users for my clients help them understand who will be using their site and how they will use it.
A well-drawn profile helps designers understand how to design navigation and how to display content. It helps everyone understand why there are certain limitations on what technical devices can be used.
Be very careful to concentrate on the most common visitors for each group. It's easy to fall into the trap of saying, "But some of these folks have T1 connections ·" and then to design for those rare cases. Programmers call these "edge cases." There should be no edge cases in your profile.
