Who IS your site? Creating Design Personas…

This week’s assignments allowed us to take a bit of a break from coding and focus on a different aspect of website design: creating a design persona.

 

If you have never thought about design personas before, it can be a bit weird and daunting. If you’re wondering why a design persona is even necessary, I suggest taking a step back and thinking about Aaron Walters’ words from Designing for Emotion. Above all else, Walters continuously stresses the importance of designing with personality. In a world of increasing screens, it is so important to create a human connection with the person who is viewing your website.

 

So, how does this tie into design personas? Who you are designing for will ultimately align with your creative choices via your website! The best way to think about this is by considering all of the various clothing brands that exist in our world. Each brand is creating for a specific person / consumer in mind. *Cue story time!

 

My brother studied graphic design at MICA (Maryland Institute College of Art). One of the first things that he ever learned about as a designer was design personas. In order to get across this idea, his professor presented his class with a variety of design personas from popular companies. One of these companies was Anthropologie. So interesting and humorous to my brother was the fact that Anthropologie’s design persona looked and sounded exactly like my mom. Anthropologie’s ideal user was a middle aged woman with glasses and two kids. She has a general interest in the arts, and loves photography. Further, she loves shopping for home décor, and enjoys fashion as well. WOW, Anthropologie’s ideal consumer definitely sounds like my mom! (Also, I am sure that their description went much more in depth, but that was the gist of it).

 

Obviously, not all those who shop at Anthropologie are middle aged women, but this key consumer definitely guides a large portion of their marketing / decision making for their overall brand traits.

 

So, when designing our own websites, we have the power to consider who exactly we are designing for. In order to think more about this idea, I decided to read up on some design personas from my favorite brands. These personas can get pretty specific and in-depth…

 

For example, take a look at Free People’s design persona:

 

“And that’s just who we wanted to reach: a 26-year-old-girl, smart, creative, confident and comfortable in all aspects of her being, free and adventurous, sweet to tough to tomboy and romantic…”

 

Companies even create graphics with exact details of who they want their personas to resemble. It may seem weird and a little “over the top” but it is ultimately making the design process and decision making a bit easier.

 

Companies often create exact mock-ups of their ideal consumer (details include bio, age, and even goals in life…)

 

When I began to consider my own design persona, I had a general idea of who I wanted to direct my design choices toward. I began by asking myself what exactly it is that I value. Some of the most important things that I believe my site will align with includes my creative, simple, and minimalistic values.

 

I could get into the specifics of my design persona, or I could share some tips with you guys for how to think about your design persona! I decided to go with option 2…

 

Some of my tips…

1. Complete your “why” statements! At the core of what we do is what we believe. By completing your why statements and thinking a bit about what exactly you believe, you will realize what is truly important to you. This will help you realize who your site aligns with for your ideal design persona.
2. Have a favorite brand? Consider doing some research on that brand’s design persona! Most brands have a section on their ‘about’ page that details who their ideal consumer is. This can help you to envision your own design persona once you see how other companies frame their own. (See Free People example above)
3. Some brands have a vivid personality through their site. This is something that Walters places extra emphasis on his chapters. Consider companies such as Glossier and Nasty Gal. Sites, such as these, seem to have a personality of their own through their font selections and overall wording. Pay extra attention to the pop-up messages that greet you throughout these sites.
4. Lastly, consider finding a photo of your ideal design persona. As weird as it sounds, sometimes having a visual of a person that would be within your ideal community helps you to further target your messaging and brand traits.

 

That’s all for this post! Good luck with forming your design personas. I am excited to see the overall brand traits and characteristics that everyone comes up with for their sites. As always, if you have any questions, please let me know 🙂 I am always here to help!

 

 

Good vibes always,

Madauer