Download - Ginny Redish - Planning specific content: Purposes, personas, conversations

Planning specific content:Purposes, personas, conversations

Janice (Ginny) Redish, Ph.D.

Redish & Associates, Inc.

Bethesda, Maryland

[email protected]

www.redish.net

@GinnyRedish

mailto:[email protected]

http://www.redish.net/

http://www.redish.net/


© 2013, Janice (Ginny) Redish Purposes, Personas, Conversations Slide 2

What do you write?

Pictures of people.© iStockphoto.com, except where I give another citation



Plan DraftReview,Test

Revise Publish

Draft =

OrganizeWriteDesign

How do you write?



Plan DraftReview,Test

Revise Publish

Let's focus on planning



Successful communication

Why plan?

If you don't organize, write, and design for your readers’ realities,you are not likely to meet your goals!

Your readers' goals (and their realities)Your goals



What must you plan?

Think before you write.

For every piece of content,answer these questions:

Why? (Purposes)

Who? (Personas)

What? (Conversations)



Why? (Purposes) Align with the organization's overall strategy and goals.

Know what you want to achieve.

Be specific.

Focus on your readersand what theyshould do.



Know what you want to achieveWhen you write this type of content

what do you want to happen?

Email to your bossbecause you want to go to a conference Instructions for filling out a form

Web content about asthma in children

Brochure about health care options



Be specific

www.manageyourwriting.com

Kenneth W. Davis

http://www.manageyourwriting.com/



Focus on your readersand what they should do

to tell people how to make an appointment

anxious patients to call the correct numberto make an appointment easily and quickly

to give instructions for the … form

our very busy site visitors, whom we know don't have time to read carefully, to fill out the form correctly and completely without calling us up

We want



Who? (Personas)

Writing ≠ communicationCommunication needs a reader, too.



But your readers aren't with you when you are writing



or reviewing

That's why you need personas.



What is a persona?

a fictional person who realistically representsa major group of site visitors

composite

based on data about demographics goals and tasks contexts of use (environments) values

Art



Answer these two questions:

Who are your site visitors? (Name the different groups.)

What should you keep in mind about these people? (Write down adjectives or phrases.)

not what content they are looking for − that's the question after this one.

How do you begin to think about personas?

AARP, used with permission

first name only

picture

individual demographics

quotes

what she does on the web

interests

Edith’s story

major use of the web

physical constraints

U.S. Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Services, used with permission

full name

titlerole

picture individual

demographicsvalues

what she does in her job

what she wants from the web site

Rebecca’s story – giving you a sense of her

as a person

Rachel, Enthusiastic dreamerTell us a bit about yourself

I’m 28I live in London with my partner and temp as a receptionist when I can. Between jobs right now.

Have you got any qualifications?

9 GCSEs and three A-levels: History, English and Media Studies

What is your ambition?

Catch up with my friends; they have degrees and they’ve got better jobs than me

Why didn’t you go to university?

Well, I did. I did a nearly year of History and loved the subject but I hated living away from home so I dropped out

What do you want to know?

What bits of History will I study?How many hours per week?How long will it take?

How did you find out about the OU?

I was browsing YouTube and found some really interesting ones from the OU.

Segment: Not Employed Adults (C1)

•24-49

•Not employed

•Considering HE

•No OU experience

•Incomplete Studies

•Progress career

The Open University, UK, used with permission

first name only

title by characteristic rather than role

picture

demographics by segment, not individual

persona is created from answers to interview questions

Simple persona descriptions from the Washington state Department of Labor & Industries; used with permission



What? (Conversations)



If you don't answer your readers' questions,they may not "hear" your messages.

For successful conversations, you must mesh…

Successfulcommunication

Site visitors' questions

Your keymessages



Write the conversation

Issuance of a TOP command results in a line zero condition.

To go to the beginning of your file, type TOP and press Enter.



Think "telephone"



Listen to your persona as you write



Walk your personas through their conversations Be the persona.

Combine what you have written with a realistic conversation.

What would the persona do?

How well would your content satisfy the persona's need?



Thank you!

More questions?Write to me: [email protected]

@GinnyRedish

Ginny Redish

Janice (Ginny) Redish, Ph.D.Redish & Associates, Inc.Bethesda, Marylandwww.redish.net

Download - Ginny Redish - Planning specific content: Purposes, personas, conversations

Top Related