© Copyright 2008, Step Two Designs Pty Ltd • www.steptwo.com.auknowledge management • content management • intranets • usability • information architecture

KMCOLUMN

CASE STUDY (MARCH 2008)

Audience personas for the Macquarie University Library website

Macquarie University is an innovative uni-versity located on a single campus in Syd-ney, Australia. Macquarie was founded in1964 as a second-generation Australian uni-versity with a focus on interdisciplinary re-search and teaching in the sciences, socialsciences and humanities.

In line with Macquarie's reputation as one ofAustralia's most innovative institutions, theMacquarie University Library (MUL) plays akey role in providing information resourcesto the University community.

Delivery of electronic services has been agrowing focus of all libraries over the last tento fifteen years, and recently there has beena sharp increase in the priority given to on-line services. The core element in this strat-egy for MUL is its website, which allowsauthorised users to access most of the mate-rial in the Library’s collections.

The website consists not only of a publicbrochureware site, but also the ‘businessend’ information portal; a powerful set oftools that allow users to search out and re-trieve books, academic journals and othermaterial.

However, there was a general recognitionthroughout MUL that the website neededimprovement, both in its appearance and us-ability, but also in its usefulness for the in-tended audience.

MUL also recognised that it needed to un-derstand its audience better, so it could de-liver appropriate targeted services bothonline and in person.

MUL sought the assistance of Step Two De-signs to begin the process of evaluating andredesigning the website. This case study

aims to give an overview of the process un-dertaken and the key outcomes.

Project goalsLibrary staff had seen the website throughseveral previous redesigns, so they had agood understanding of what is involved indesigning and maintaining a website, butthey needed some assistance in specific are-as.

In particular, we helped with user research,information architecture and general webdesign and usability expertise.

The goal was to review the website in prepa-ration for a major redesign. This requiredsubstantial user research, and it was decidedto undertake this more broadly, becausegaining a clear picture of MUL clients andtheir needs would also be useful for the web-site.

It was also necessary to gain an understand-ing of the organisation itself, how it func-tioned and how this affects the delivery ofservices to Library clients.

Based on the research, a set of strategic rec-ommendations and a roadmap for futurewebsite development were formulated.

However, the focus of this article is on thedevelopment of a new audience model, in-cluding personas.

Overview of methodologyUltimately, the MUL website will have manyaspects redesigned based on this work, butthe immediate product of this project was anevaluation of the current site and the crea-tion of an audience model. These will feedinto information architecture design and im-plementation work further down the track.

Review the website in preparation for a major redesign

Patrick Kennedy is a user experi-ence specialist at Step Two De-signs, an intranet and contentmanagement consultancy basedin Sydney, Australia. Patrick spe-cialises in information architec-ture, user-centred design, designresearch and web development.

Audience personas for the Macquarie University Library website • Page 2© Copyright 2008, Step Two Designs Pty Ltd • www.steptwo.com.au

The project was made up of two main activ-ities: an expert evaluation and the user re-seach.

The expert evaluation took a long hard lookat the actual website and identified anumber of areas that needed attention. Suchan evaluation covers the practical and heu-ristic aspects of all websites, irrespective ofthe specific audience.

However the main focus for the project wason the user research, looking at the websitefrom a strategic viewpoint, understandingits audience and how they use the library.

Understanding clients’ needs

It is very important to base design on a goodunderstanding of requirements. Too often,websites—as well as intranets and softwareapplications—are designed purely on the ba-sis of functional or technical requirements,or the opinions of those who create them.

This was definitely the case for the MULwebsite. It is a highly functional website,providing several search interfaces as well asaccess to many external academic databases.In effect the key parts of the website aremore akin to software than a normal staticwebsite.

Such a site requires carefully crafted user in-terfaces, that work efficiently, are easy to un-derstand, and possibly most importantly, areuseful for users.

A number of user research techniques wereemployed during this phase of the project,including:

• interviews with a variety of staff

• focus group with key stakeholders

• analysis of web analytics

• interviews with MUL clients

• usability testing

• contextual observation

Good representation of clients was achievedfrom each of the categories found in the Li-brary’s established view of its clients.

The established view of clients

MUL, like most academic institutions, has aview of its clients, based on traditional aca-demic structures.

The complete list of all possible clients in-cludes:

• Library staff

• University academic staff

• University general staff

• Undergraduate students

• Postgraduate students

• Higher degree research candidates (PhD)

• Commercial entities (eg strategic partnerships with the University)

• School and TAFE students

• Local residents

• Staff from other libraries

This highly hierarchical model lumps dispa-rate groups, such as all undergraduate stu-dents, together.

This view is probably useful for many pur-poses, such as administrative organisation.However, for the purposes of evaluating andredesigning the website, a more detailedmodel of the audience was required.

One key issue was the inclusion of ‘librarystaff’ on the list. While library staff do makeuse of the website—primarily in lieu of analternative system for them to access librarysystems—they should not be the target audi-ence group.

Librarians have strongly held views on infor-mation delivery, as a result of their longtraining and experience. This is in stark con-trast with the situation of most library cli-ents and website users.

In reality, anything designed from the librar-ians’ point of view is more than likely notserving clients well.

While there is some argument for ‘expert in-terfaces’, the only effective method of decid-ing what should be provided and how itshould work, is to understand the needs ofthe users.

The focus was on understanding the audience

Library staff should not be the target audience group

Audience personas for the Macquarie University Library website • Page 3© Copyright 2008, Step Two Designs Pty Ltd • www.steptwo.com.au

Audience modellingThe wide variety of clients have differentgoals, behaviours and attitudes. Upon analy-sis, natural patterns emerge, suggestinggroups within the total audience. Based onthese groups, an audience model was creat-ed to define the audience.

Fortunately, there was plenty of data availa-ble on MUL clients. In addition to the prima-ry research undertaken (eg interviews), aregular library survey undertaken by mostAustralian University Libraries and the Mac-quarie University annual report provided awealth of useful data on students and staff.

The large sample size of these secondary re-search sources was very useful in terms ofgaining more detail but also validating thefindings of the qualitative research.

Analysis of the surveys suggests several op-tions for segmenting MUL clients, including:frequency of library use, frequency of onlinevisits, frequency of campus visits, ‘type’ and‘category’.

These views suit the purposes they werepublished for, and maintain the establishedview of clients, but don’t necessarily providea useful model for website usage.

Instead, a new model was created by lookingat how often clients use the library (or howmuch they need it) and their experience inusing the library (or how serious they areabout using it).

The resulting segmentation is illustrated inthe chart on this page.

Throughout the development of the audi-ence model, the evidence collected about li-brary clients was used to further refine themodel.

Natural progression

It was obvious that many Macquarie stu-dents are very occasional users of the li-brary.

They have little or no need for scholarly re-search because their courses do not requireit. Meanwhile, other students have to use thelibrary a lot because their courses do requireit.

And library use changes over time. Initially,students have very few library and researchskills. As they progress further through theiracademic career, students build up theirskills. Demands on them also change, for ex-ample moving on from undergraduate studymeans doing more research.

By the time they reach the level of PhD or ac-ademic, clients are more or less professionalresearchers. They are familiar with librarysystems and scholarly research is a core partof their careers.

But life experience and circumstances alsoplay a part. For instance, a studious under-graduate student has a very different ap-proach to a less motivated individual.Mature-age students typically strive to ‘gothe extra mile’ to do well at University.

Audience personas

For each audience segment, a draft persona was created. A persona is a profile that repre-

Figure 1—Audience segmentation chart.

Audience personas for the Macquarie University Library website • Page 4© Copyright 2008, Step Two Designs Pty Ltd • www.steptwo.com.au

sents the key characteristics of the clients in that segment. Personas are an excellent way of capturing and communicating the needs, behaviours and attitudes of each audience group. They were chosen for this project in order to focus design efforts on the end users of the site.

The personas for the MUL website are:

Nicole the novice scholar

Nicole (see figure 2) is an undergraduate stu-dent whose course requires a fair bit of re-search in the library. Students like Nicole,studying humanities and similar subjects,need to use a lot of academic material:books, reserve books and journals as well asmedia and the internet. However, Nicole isnot well equipped for this kind of workwhen she arrives at university and is unfa-miliar with information systems or researchstrategies.

Eric the experienced researcher

Eric (see figure 3) is a lecturer for the Univer-sity, and like all academic staff at Macquariehe also has his own research projects. Ericand his peers, who include PhD students,are full-time academics. He is trained andexperienced at using libraries and the infor-mation systems found in them.

Sunita the studious student

Sunita (see figure 4) is a career woman stud-ying part-time to get her Master’s degree,something she takes very seriously. Stu-dents at this level, as with mature-age under-g raduate s tudents , have more l i f eexperience. They know what they want andare studying to get it. Sunita strives to go theextra mile and get the best possible results.

Feng the infrequent user

Feng (see figure 5) does a course that doesn’trequire much use of the library. He and oth-er students doing accounting and financedegrees—as well as IT and law—rarely cometo the library to do research or use academicmaterial. He uses the library systems so in-frequently that he doesn’t get used to themor build up tactics and strategies for success.Feng needs help to use the library.

Sarah the high school student

Sarah (see figure 6) is not at university yet,but she occasionally uses the library. Sheand other casual users of the library, such asmembers of the local community or amateur Figure 6—Persona for ‘Sarah the high school student’.

Figure 5—Persona for ‘Feng the infrequent user’.

Figure 4—Persona for ‘Sunita the studious student’.

Figure 3—Persona for ‘Eric the experienced researcher’.

Figure 2—Persona for ‘Nicole the novice scholar’.

Audience personas for the Macquarie University Library website • Page 5© Copyright 2008, Step Two Designs Pty Ltd • www.steptwo.com.au

historians, use the library rarely and lackconfidence in an academic environment.

Developing the personas

The defining characteristics that set eachpersona apart from the others, form an es-sence. It is good to try and capture this es-sence in the persona’s title.

Fleshing out the personas involves addingdetails such as a name, photo and demo-graphic details. The figures on page 4 showfragments of longer documents, but repre-sent the core of the personas.

The longer versions add further embellish-ment in the form of narrative style scenariosof use.

In all cases the details added to the personaswere based on data collected through eitherprimary or secondary research. Only details(or attributes) that are relevant to clients in-teracting with MUL, or to staff understand-ing how to serve clients, should be included.

Persona prioritisation

It is simply not possible to design something that meets the needs of everyone. A website cannot be designed to be optimal for all of the personas created.

Creating personalised interfaces, or content, for different personas is one solution, but there will be times when decisions need to be made about the choice of design solution.

This is precisely the point of personas, to assist design decisions. To resolve competing or conflicting needs, the personas must be prioritised into a primary persona, and sev-eral secondary personas.

For the MUL website, Nicole is recom-mended as the primary persona. This means that most design decisions will be made to suit Nicole (and the clients she represents).

Nicole was selected as the primary persona because the students she represents are in need of assistance and have high future potential. That is, they don’t have enough library skills to do their best with the existing website, and it makes sense for them to get

better at it since their courses use the library a lot.

Feng and Sarah were not chosen as the pri-mary persona because they use the library so little that they will have difficulty using it no matter what. Things can be made easier for them, but there is only so much improve-ment to be made.

Of course, efforts should be made to accom-modate the secondary personas, but Nicole should be given priority. A good example of when this is necessary is the labelling of nav-igation items. What would Nicole call this?

Other personas

In addition to primary and secondary perso-nas, it is possible to add further personas to the audience model in the future.

This might include the creation of an ‘anti-persona’ (also known as an ‘unimportant’ persona). For the MUL website this could be used to represent library staff.

A common mistake made by website design-ers is to design for themselves. So an anti-persona would further clarify the boundaries of the website audience, and that the website should not be designed for librarians.

Clients changing hats

The prioritisation of personas is not set in stone. The primary persona may change as library objectives change over time, but of more immediate concern is the need to set different priorities in different sections of the website.

For example, Nicole is the primary persona for the overall website, but within the help section, it might be Feng that is selected as the primary persona. Design decisions within that section would be made according to his needs.

Another special case concerns the general (or non-academic) staff working for the Univer-sity. In performing their job, they are unlikely to use the library.

But, as it happens, many University general staff also study part-time. In this case, they would assume the most appropriate persona (eg Feng, Nicole or Sunita). Indeed, based on

Personas were based on data collected through research

The prioritisation of personas is not set in stone

Audience personas for the Macquarie University Library website • Page 6© Copyright 2008, Step Two Designs Pty Ltd • www.steptwo.com.au

their levels of library expertise, they may assume the Eric persona.

Evolution of personas

The personas were presented to MUL as draft versions, and for good reason. They are a ‘work in progress’ and a continued, collab-orative effort will be required to refine them as time goes on.

As further data is gathered, and the website team become more experienced with the use of personas, improvements can be made.

This approach also recognises that the audi-ence will slowly change, and the personas (and possibly the segmentation) will need to accommodate this change.

For instance, a persona might be split apartin order to give a smaller segment better fo-cus (eg research assistants). Alternatively,two or more personas might be joined to-gether as needs or skills converge in differ-ent groups.

Strategic reviewThe user research provided good informa-tion about the MUL audience, and in addi-tion, several key themes emerged about theway clients think of the library and go aboutusing it.

For example, one such theme was ‘the li-brary is just a building’. To the vast majorityof clients (ie students) the library is primari-ly a building. They see it as a place to go tostudy or take a break, and are largely una-ware of what else the library has to offer.

These findings can have a direct impact onthe strategic and tactical decisions made byMUL, not only about the website, but alsoabout the way the library operates in gener-al.

Each theme was documented in the final re-port given to MUL, supported by directquotes from clients and, where possible, ex-amples to clearly illustrate the situation.

A roadmap for website developmentMoving forward with the project involvedplanning what to do with the website andwhen to do it.

Improving the usability and effectiveness of any reasonably-sized website requires improvements on many fronts, and attempt-ing to tackle all of these in one go is unrealis-tic.

Instead, it was recommended that develop-ment be undertaken as a series of incrementalimprovements. Based on this project, it waspossible to plan and prioritise recommenda-tions, allowing the activities that will havethe most impact on the website (from a us-ers’ point of view) to be completed soonerrather than later.

To that end, a roadmap was developed for theforthcoming website redesign, containingthree distinct phases:

• Immediate actions

In order to address website issues as soon as possible, an action list has been formu-lated. These are typically small changes, but will either address critical issues or set the scene for later improvements.

• For next redesign

The bulk of improvements to the website will require substantial changes to its structure and interface. These actions must wait until the next major site rede-sign.

• Long-term actions

Some areas of the library website are clearly tied to the fundamental way in which the library operates, or the atti-tudes of staff. Changes to these areas will take some time.

ConclusionThis project has shown that undertaking ef-fective user research provides new insightinto a website, and an institutional, audi-ence. It is possible, and beneficial, to chal-lenge an organisation’s established view ofthe world.

The personas developed for the MUL web-site have since attracted the attention of staff

Further effort will be required to refine personas as time goes on

It is possible to challenge the organisation’s view of the world

Audience personas for the Macquarie University Library website • Page 7© Copyright 2008, Step Two Designs Pty Ltd • www.steptwo.com.au

in other areas of the Library. The benefits ofdefining clients in this way was apparent,and potential uses for the personas outsidethe domain of web design can now be seen.

However, the model used to describe the au-dience for a website can be different to thatwhich departments within an organisationuse. There may be valid reasons for doingthis, and such an arrangement can work wellas long as the purpose of each persona set isclearly defined and adhered to.

Having such a good understanding of the au-dience provides an excellent foundation fora subsequent website redesign. Informationarchitecture, visual design and strategic de-cisions regarding content and functionality,can all make use of a ‘true picture’ of the tar-get audience.

Finally, this project has shown the benefitsof undertaking ‘needs analysis’ and a strate-gic review of a website. The findings from

the review, beyond the audience model,gave tremendous insight into issues that sur-round the effectiveness of the MUL.

Acknowledgements

This project would not have been a successwithout collaboration between MacquarieUniversity Library and Step Two Designs, inparticular the efforts of Meredith Martinelliand the rest of the Library Learning and De-velopment team.

Further reading

An introduction to personas...steptwo.com.au/papers/kmc_personas/

In-house recruitment of users for researchsteptwo.com.au/papers/cmb_recruitingusers

Start user research by talking with staffsteptwo.com.au/papers/cmb_startwithstaff/

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