Web design involves blending stylish visual features with practical design solutions, so that your website users can easily retrieve the information they need, and be persuaded to make a purchase, or get in touch. But how do you know what information your users need? And how can you plan to meet your users specific needs? Well, this is where audience personas can be incredibly helpful. So what is an audience persona? And how should it influence your web design? Well, here at Pumpkin Web Design Manchester, we are Manchester’s leading web design professionals. From Wigan to Southport, we work with companies across Manchester and the surrounding region to deliver high quality web design solutions that really get results. As a result, we have produced this guide to the role of audience personas in web design.
What is an audience persona?
An audience persona is a persona you create that signifies your audience. If your audience covers a range of demographics, you may need to create multiple personas to cover your range of audience. This is because different people will be looking for different things from your website. For example, for a plumbing website, your audience may well be:
- a construction contractor looking for a firm to complete large scale house building contracts
- or, a single father looking for someone to fix a leak
- or even an elderly lady who needs a new boiler
Each of these audience members will have specific requirements for your website, even if these are only sub-conscious. For example:
- a construction contractor might be looking for evidence of past projects, to see if the plumbing company are up to the task
- a single father might simply be looking for a contact number to get in touch with a plumber as soon as possible
- while an elderly lady may be wanting to read information about different types of boilers
Meeting the needs of all the different types of people who use your website would be almost impossible if it wasn’t for audience personas.
The role of audience personas in web design
So, once you have used data and information to define your audience and really get to know a range of different personas from your target audience, you can use this information to influence your web design. So, what is the role of audience personas in web design? Well, an audience persona could influence:
- The above the fold content- if you know a large portion of your audience are looking for the same information, it could be beneficial to include this above the fold. Whether its a hero slider of your services or products, or your contact details with a button for direct call, your above the fold content should be able to satisfy those users in a hurry.
- The key elements- below the fold, this space is generally reserved for featuring key elements of your content. These key elements shouldn’t simply be decided on by you, they should be designed to satisfy the requirements of your audience. And this will be based on the audience personas you have already developed.
For more information or advice, get in touch with the experts today, here at Pumpkin Web Design Manchester.