Persona-Based Design

Whether you’re launching a new blog as en elected member or a full website for your latest campaign you need to sit down and think about the type of people that are going to use the website and then break it down using ‘personas’.

Let’s say you’re a candidate in a parliamentary constituency - it’s not accurate to believe that your website is going to be visited by every single registered voter. With the best will in the world it just won’t happen. You need to focus on getting the best out of the people who will visit, be that a vote or a donation.

Start by looking at the make-up of your constituency. For instance, do you have a large hospital that employs a lot of people in the local area? If so, you can call your first person ‘the hospital employee’. We can make some assumptions based on this persona: they are not likely to access your website at work, but instead will likely look at it in the evening or morning so think about the time you publish your news and blogs. That’s just one example. You might have mostly commercial offices in which case you can assume that people will look at your site whilst at the office and shape your site around that knowledge.

Check out what the penetration of broadband internet is like in your area. If it’s mostly dial-up connections then forget about doing YouTube videos that nobody locally will be able to enjoy. Likewise, if you’re in a broadband-rich area you should think about getting your camera out.

Breaking down the type of people that are going to visit your site is essential. It will allow you to determine which features are a priority, which will then help you build your design and development brief that you will give to the person or agency who will design your website.