Personas

The Web Redesign Task Force developed two personas (think of them as typical users) to help guide us through the redesign.

The Task Force recognizes that the Libraries’ Web site has many different categories of users. Some of these include:

• Undergraduates
• Graduate students
• Faculty and visiting scholars
• Libraries’ staff
• Alumni
• Larger scholarly community
• Community users
• Library professionals from other institutions

It is impossible to design one home page that ideally meets all the needs of each of these groups. So, we will operate under the principle that we are designing with all these groups in mind, but that the home page must meet the needs of a primary user who we have defined as an undergraduate with limited library experience. The Task Force will also pay special attention to the needs of a secondary user, a graduate student with more advanced research and library skills.

These two personas are adapted from personas developed by the UM Libraries Web Group during the 2001 redesign.

Primary user: Christine

• She is a freshman coming here straight from high school where she got good grades.
• She hasn’t declared a major, but she is thinking about business.
• She has minimal library experience.
• She has had basic library instruction through her English 101 class.
• She is more computer savvy than library savvy: she surfs the Web, e-mails her friends, uses Word to write papers, and spends many hours on Instant Messenger.
• Her home computer has a dial up connection.
• She is a commuter student living 30 minutes from campus.
• She works part time at a retail job near her home.
• She has at least one course where information/assignments are delivered through the Web.
• She has a research assignment that requires library use: current periodicals via databases (she probably won’t have to use the catalog for this one).
• She will start her research at home, but will continue it in the library.
• When using the library, she wants “instant gratification” and expects to find the “right” answer. She is not comfortable with ambiguity.
• She’s anxious about using the library and about her assignments.
• She doesn’t have the patience to go through an online library tutorial.
• She prefers and expects to be able to find full text articles.
• She doesn’t know about the branch libraries, but she uses McKeldin to check her e-mail, study, print, and photocopy.

Secondary User: Pat

• He is a graduate student doing a dissertation in government & politics.
• He commutes to campus.
• He is a T.A.
• He primarily uses e-journals, databases, and books for his research.
• He got his bachelor’s from another institution.
• He is willing to ask questions in person, by e-mail, by phone and wants easy access to people who can answer his questions.
• He knows that he should be able to borrow materials from other libraries, but he doesn’t know the term “ILL.”
• English is not his first language.
• He won’t look for tutorials or guides to information resources.