Visualizing your audience through user personas
As content creators, it can be hard to truly connect and empathize with our target audience. We may think we know the problems they are dealing with and what they need to have them alleviated, but this is easier said than done. Luckily, there are a number of strategies and methods we can use to gain a better understanding of the people we create for.
One incredibly common strategy is to create “user personas” for your audience. The user persona is a character created to represent a cluster of users who behave similarly in regard to the design. Making these allows you to visualize and understand the different parts that make up segments of your audience or user. This exercise allows designers to empathize and better understand who they are creating for allowing for a better end-product.
An example user persona profile.
To learn more about user personas and better understand the audiences that I work for, I embarked on my own process of creating personas.
In my process, I analyzed the users who frequent MPB’s website – a platform for buying, selling, and trading photos a video equipment. They are a trusted brand which allows content creators of all sizes to get great used gear shipped to their home.
The following are two user personas to represent different audiences who may use MPB. The first is me: a college student looking to get started in a photography as a career and needs high-quality gear at a reasonable price. The second is a professional videographer who is constantly changing gear to stay up to date with new technology that will make allow their business to flourish.
All the details of the personas I created are attached in the link at the beginning and end of this blog post. I encourage you to download that file and take a look at all of the detailed components.
Hi! My name is Peyton McKenzie.
I am a professional graphic designer, photographer and content creator.
I encourage you to explore my portfolio to get a better idea of the work I create. If you are interested in working with me or have inquiries of any kind, don’t hesitate to reach out over email.
