Questions about persona and customer journeys (Feedback on Activity 5)
Written by: Jonathan Briggs
November 12, 2008 [3829 views]
Some good thoughtful work from many of you with some interesting persona being developed.
Here are some of the questions you raised that I will go through in the next session:
Are personas the only way of recognizing customer needs? Are personas the most effective way of realizing the needs of various groups of consumers?
No. We can ask existing users, watch people using a site (or prototype) in laboratories or in their homes, run focus groups or surveys or borrow ideas from other sites. We can also measure demand using data from search engines. Developing personas is a straightforward technique that when run in conjunction with the client has proved highly effective.
What are the pros and cons of doing personas?
Pros: Gets everyone thinking about the end-user (the customer) for the project
Cons: Needs good creative thinking and then prioritisation. It is always possible to generate a large number of persona.
What techniques you use in order to get personas right and useful when designing e-commerce sites?
We talk to the client
We try and talk to some customers
We imagine ourselves as customers
We try and think about how they respond to the existing site
We measure how the current site is being used using analytics and user tracking software
Why do we have to look at a 'bad website'?
Its often easier to learn to do something with an poor example than a good one. Many sites have been designed without thinking about the people who will use it. Once you have learned the technique then you can apply it to harder problems such as good sites.
How important are soft skills in ecommerce? More or less than in the past?
Very and increasingly. Most clients are very unsure about the technologies that are transforming the retail and business landscapes and you have to help them plot a course within that world. Watch out for:
Clients who think they are web designers
Clients who are web designers
Clients who have not really thought about their customers
Clients who think this is very easy (because Google Maps and YouTube are so simple)
What other techniques can be used to include price sensitive and quality demanding customers in the same site and get them past the basket?
Convince them that your service is superior
Convince them that buying from you is safer or more secure
Show them that a purchase is part of a bigger relationship
Upsell them to something better
Cast doubt on your competitors (hidden charges)
What is the different between the "Homepage" and the "landing page"?
A home page is where the visitor normally goes if they know the brand and/or can guess the URL
A “landing page” is a destination (often from a search) that is the starting point for customers with specific needs to have their needs met.
Do customer journeys always help to design a great website? How can an e-commerce website be designed to fit in to different customer needs?
They are one of a set of tools that will help you think about improving a site. Here is a reminder of some of the others:
Reflects the personality of the brand
Helps customers decide
Provides expert and detailed advice
Offers excellent customer service
Supports customers in different “modes of shopping”
Well integrated with the business
Accessible to all customers on all platforms
Barrier (and worry) free
What did you mean by characteristics and persona?
Who are your customers?
What are they like?
What drives them to buy from you?
Are they old, young, urban, rural, male, female, worried, rich?
For Foreign users what ways are there to accommodate them to make their experience for a site more easy to use and enjoyable?
Translate the landing pages
Translate the whole site
Make the English simpler
Make the shopping process obvious
How will this be asked in the exam?
It could be a case study asking you to generate some persona and explain what effect they might have on a redesign.
What do you think?
