Building Web Personas

Building Web Personas is a very useful activity for when you are building (or redesigning) a web site. What you will get out of it in the end is a clearer picture of not only who your target audience is (you will definitely get to know them inside and out), but what their information needs are and how they would want to consume it. Building Web Personas will help guide the user-interface design and layout of your web site. It is sort of like planning a grand dinner party and cooking for a wide variety of people's tastes. You have to know what they like to eat and how they want to eat it!

A quick Google search on "web personas" will pull up a number of great articles on not only what web personas are but how you can build them.

Here are my top 6.

• User Persona: Developing a Website Visitor Profile by Doug Williams http://www.webdesignseo.com/web-design/user-persona-developing-a-website-visitor-profile.php
• Personas: Setting the Stage for Building Usable Information Sites By Alison J. Head http://www.infotoday.com/online/jul03/head.shtml
• Using Personas & Scenarios in web design from Web Design from Scratch http://www.webdesignfromscratch.com/goal-oriented-design/about-personas/
• Web personas and Mind Maps by Stan Woods http://www.velocitypartners.co.uk/2009/04/22/web-personas-and-mind-maps/
• Web Personas: Creating Jane by Lisa Barone http://www.bruceclay.com/design/articles/webpersona.htm
• Persona Format from FluidProject: http://wiki.fluidproject.org/display/fluid/Persona+Format?showComments=false