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

Planning specific content:
Purposes, personas, conversations
Janice (Ginny) Redish, Ph.D.
Redish & Associates, Inc.
Bethesda, Maryland
ginny@redish.net
www.redish.net
@GinnyRedish

© 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 Draft
Review,
Test
Revise Publish
Draft =
Organize
Write
Design
How do you write?

Plan Draft
Review,
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 readers
and what they
should do.

Know what you want to achieve
When you write
this type of content
what do you want
to happen?
Email to your boss
because 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

Focus on your readers
and what they should do
to tell people how to make an appointment
anxious patients to call the correct number
to 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 ≠ communication
Communication 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 represents
a 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
title
role
picture
individual
demographics
values
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 dreamer
Tell us a bit
about yourself
I’m 28
I 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…
Successful
communication
Site visitors'
questions
Your key
messages

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:
ginny@redish.net
@GinnyRedish
Ginny Redish
Janice (Ginny) Redish, Ph.D.
Bethesda, Maryland
www.redish.net

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