Audience, Personas, and Scope

by Evan Dudla, Eric Hansen, Tiffany Milano and Rich Zarick

AudiencePersona

Persona #1 - Beth (“Bridezilla”) ParkerCharacteristicsMotivation for using The Pink OrangeTechnical Experience

Persona #2 - Elisa (“Expectant Mom”) SmithCharacteristicsMotivation for using The Pink OrangeTechnical Experience

Persona #3 - William (“Wedding Planner”) LewisCharacteristicsMotivation for using The Pink Orange

Persona #4 - Bob (“Businessman”) LoblawCharacteristicsMotivation for using The Pink OrangeTechnical Experience

Scope

AudienceAlong the top navigation bar it lists “Weddings”, “Event”, “Bambinos”, “Identity”, “FAQ”, “Press”, “Praise”, “Blog”, “Shop”, “About”, and “Contact.” With these navigation links it is easy to figure out the target audience of the site. The different target audiences are people planning weddings, events, baby showers, had a new baby, or wanting to create a brand identity. Being customers, current or potential future, is the common link between these different target audiences. Most of them are also looking to purchase stationary while the last one could be looking for just a vector design to be used in various locations. Customers who are looking to purchase stationary generally benchmark different websites before settling on the one they will finalize their order with. They could be looking for differences in styles or differences in prices. It is important to have previous designs showing along with prices so the customer can use this data to make an informed decision. It is a little different for the customer looking to purchase a brand identity since brand identity relates more to the brand. Both of these types of customers need to be able to easily contact the designer for personalization towards their stationary. With multiple target audiences it is still clear that the main audience is a person purchasing wedding stationary (announcements, invitations, etc.). It is also apparent that the website is tailored towards a female audience with the company name being “The Pink Orange” and the color scheme used on the website. Analyzing based on the top navigation, color scheme, design, and information found on the website it is clear that the main audience is a female planning a wedding with or without a wedding planner. It is still important to recognize the secondary audiences in order to meet their design needs.

Persona Persona #1 - Beth (“Bridezilla”) Parker Characteristics

Beth is young and highly spirited with long wavy black hair and deep green eyes and is 5’5”. She spends most of her timing worrying about what people think of her appearance and spends the majority of her time in the morning worrying over her hair and makeup. She went to college for nursing but was really only going to school to meet a nice guy at the neighboring college. And once she met that guy she was less interested in actually completing her degree but she pushed through to keep up appearances. On March 8th, 2011, Beth’s dreams came true when her boyfriend and now fiance, James Donovan, got down on one knee while out to dinner at their favorite restaurant (Jack’s Oyster House in Albany, NY).

Motivation for using The Pink Orange

Beth wishes to purchase invitations for her wedding which is set for September 8th, 2012. She has spent plenty of time navigating the Internet looking for something that would truly shape her vision of her dream wedding into something she could give to her friends and family. Beth found The Pink Orange and had a choice to make between Ready-to-Order wedding invitations and going the fully-custom route. She understood that she wanted her wedding to be unique, but she was able to use the Visual Quiz to inspire her creativity and come up with a set of invitations that her guests would never forget.

Technical Experience

Beth uses an old college laptop on occasion. She prefers to spend her time with friends and family as she is a very outgoing person. With that said, her hardware is a bit dated, but she knows that Firefox will offer her a much better browsing experience while on Facebook or other popular social networks. She is often using her iPhone to text, check her email, browse through Twitter and update everyone on the new pair of shoes she just bought. She uses it for browsing the Web more than she does her aged laptop.

Persona #2 - Elisa (“Expectant Mom”) Smith Characteristics

Previous to her pregnancy, Elisa Smith is a young entrepreneur in the Capital Region. In her mid-30’s, Elisa loves to be creative while baking and decided to make a career out of it. She started her specialty cupcake business in early 2003, just after college. Working from home has become a “treat” for her, especially with a baby on the way. Because of the baby, Ms. Smith and her husband want to make sure they are unconditionally ready to support the child. Ms. Smith calculates her budgets to the “T” and wants to know exactly where her money is going that she is spending on the new addition to the family. In addition, the Smiths — particularly Elisa — are very particular in the choices they make when planning for events like a baby shower and bringing their child home for the first time.

Motivation for using The Pink OrangeShe was very particular to the choices she made while planning the arrival of the newborn, but she simply does not have all the time to execute a baby shower and make the event as special as she desires. For this reason, Ms. Smith is looking toward outside help with decorations and stationary for invitations and “Thank-You” notes to send to the guests. The “Bambino” section of The Pink Orange is what Elisa is after. Offering custom-created baby shower invitations is exactly what Elisa is looking for; she is particularly fond of the “Baby Hailey” design, but would like to explore other options for including her own vision and creativity in the process.

Technical Experience

Elisa is an entrepreneur and understands the importance of technology for her business. Unfortunately, with her background in Business Administration, her technical knowledge is more limited to accounting and planning software, rather than the Web. Elisa uses her MacBook Pro she purchased for her business as a primary browsing device. With this, she tends to know Safari as “The Internet” and does not deviate from her default setup. Occasionally, while on-the-go, she will use her mobile phone to answer inquiries and check her email, but never browse the Web. She strays away from mobile use, however, for the health and safety of the baby.

Persona #3 - William (“Wedding Planner”) Lewis Characteristics

William is a stressed out wedding planner who’s looking for a good website to turn around wedding invitations that were supposed to be done last Friday. With all the time that the rest of the wedding will take to be planned, Will needs the invitations to be done quickly and without worry.

William is 35 years old, detail oriented, and has planned enough weddings to be considered experienced in his field. Though he’s not the most technically savvy, he has a new laptop and a renewed interest in online business. Despite his confidence, the last time he used an online solution as part of a wedding plan, the plan backfired and he had to do something last minute. As such, he’s worried something might go wrong with ordering online.

Motivation for using The Pink Orange

Regardless, William already has all the details of what need to be on the invitations, and just needs somebody to do the printwork and design. He considers a number of solutions, but ultimately decides to use a local business because of the proximity and personal touch. Usually, William would have considered calling the local business or driving to the storefront to have a meeting in person, but he doesn’t have the time to make the visit. Since The Pink Orange fits the model of the local business with an website to order the invitations, he decides that they are the place to place his order. William looks at the “ready to order” section for wedding invitations and finds that there is a good number of designs to choose from. Since he’s running out of time, he decides they will do, and places an order.

Persona #4 - Bob (“Businessman”) Loblaw Characteristics

Bob Loblaw is a lawyer in Saratoga Springs, NY. He is 48 years old, married with 2 teenage children, both in private schools. He is 6’2”, has greying brown hair, and hazel eyes. His favorite colors are black and green. He is originally from Rye, NY, but during one summer during college he fell in love with Saratoga Springs, where he met his wife. He excels in his field of tax law and is the founding partner of his practice. His personality is quiet and measured. He is meticulous in his work and in his personal grooming. He has a classic sense of style. He drives a Saab 9-5 wagon. His hobbies include golfing and sailing. He has a second home on Nantucket, where the family summers, a welcome relief from tax season. The family enjoys going to farmers markets on weekends and buying locally produced goods and services.

Motivation for using The Pink OrangeBob is in the process of creating an online presence and is in need of an updated corporate identity. He became aware of The Pink Orange when his wife decided to hire Plum and Crimson, an interior design firm in Saratoga Springs, to redecorate their living room. He discovered that their marketing materials were created by The Pink Orange. Because he liked the work Plum and Crimson did on his living room, he decided that he could entrust his law firm’s identity to The Pink Orange as well. He likes that it is a local firm and would rank that as highly important to his decision to select them. Also important to him is the quality of the printed media he will be able to produce.

Technical ExperienceBob carries a BlackBerry as though it is an extension of himself because of his work. Other than that he keeps the latest in Apple products, whether or not he knows what to do with them. He frequently asks his children for help with his devices, though he is able to pick up on the logic of them quickly. He is especially adept with spreadsheets. He is perfectly comfortable with buying things online, such as he especially likes Amazon.com, but he does like to have a personal contact for important purchases. One technology he will not adopt is the eBook because he likes physical media. As such, his personal and professional libraries consist of many hardbound books.

Scope

From an information architecture perspective it is important to visualize the architecture as it will be seen from the customer’s perspective. Having the target audience of the site in mind allows us to approach the scope of the website from a specific perspective. The scope of the Information Architecture analysis will be an overview of the customer’s experience when purchasing printed materials from The Pink Orange.