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Crafting an unforgettable investment experience within the intricate world of investor behaviour unveiled a tapestry of needs and motivations that shape financial decisions. Using Experience Mapping these insights into the customer lifecycle were uncovered and common threads exposed.

Get to know your users better – Pt I

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Pure UX
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TLDR: Despite resource limitations, this Content Audit project successfully utilised proto-personas to gain a deeper understanding of user needs. By consolidating persona data into meaningful ‘chunks’, and communicating findings to stakeholders, we achieved a deeper comprehension of all users. This empowered UX to move forward with the next stage – using experience maps to uncover user behaviour and emotions.

Contents

Please note; for client confidentiality sensitive parts of all imagery has been pixelated. All work is copyright ©RussellWebbDesign 2023

Hard Skills:

Design Process

Research & Theory

Visual Design

Soft Skills:

Strategic Thinking

Problem-Solving

Critical Thinking

Full List →

Gather your troops

…or the content audit data you have

“You can only play the team put in front of you”

Every adaptable designer

This quote underscores the importance of adaptability and resourcefulness in the face of constraints, accept the challenges that regulated design environment offers and always, always deliver. It would be perfect to have documented;

  • Customer surveys
  • Stakeholder interviews
  • Analytics rationalised down into meaningful chunks

…and have access to every piece of data you desire, but sometimes you have to go with what you’ve got.

Despite resource constraints and tight timelines of this Content Audit / Inventory project we adapted and  utilised proto-personas as a foundation. These were then rationalised in bucketed or grouped personas to fit the project plan.

Navigating the complexity of proto-personas

Despite resource limitations, this Content Audit project successfully utilised proto-personas to gain a deeper understanding of user needs. By consolidating and refining persona data into meaningful ‘chunks’, and effectively communicating findings to stakeholders, all lead to a deeper comprehension of users for all involved. This empowered us to move forward with the next stage – using experience maps to uncover user behaviour and emotions.
Proto-personas: Adaptability in the face of organisational inertia and provide clarity to maintain stakeholder engagement.

Adapt UX to audience and personas

Larger organisations, often operating outside the realm of agile methodologies, may still be in the early stages of embracing advanced UX strategies, so adapting your approach to your audience is a key skill for the modern-day UX designer. When personas are agreed and validated and the only ‘source of truth’ – designers must find creative ways to integrate these personas. They must also be prepared to refine and adapt personas over time, ensuring that they remain relevant and accurate in light of evolving user needs and market trends.

Despite resource limitations, this Content Audit project successfully utilised proto-personas to gain a deeper understanding of user needs. By consolidating and refining persona data into meaningful ‘chunks’, and effectively communicating findings to stakeholders, all lead to a deeper comprehension of users for all involved. This empowered us to move forward with the next stage – using experience maps to uncover user behaviour and emotions.
Overly detailed personas can dilute effectiveness, especially for large organisations. This task focused on consolidating personas for greater clarity.

Focussed personas work well, when larger organisations multiply these audience types, their impact is reduced. This task looked at grouping and sorting by commonalities

Conduct extensive desk research to develop a deep understanding

Despite resource limitations, this Content Audit project successfully utilised proto-personas to gain a deeper understanding of user needs. By consolidating and refining persona data into meaningful ‘chunks’, and effectively communicating findings to stakeholders, all lead to a deeper comprehension of users for all involved. This empowered us to move forward with the next stage – using experience maps to uncover user behaviour and emotions.
Embark on a deep dive of user research to become the brand’s go-to expert on your target audience.

Absorb insights

Take the time to listen and absorb – Become the brand’s knowledge hub, absorbing insights and actively absorbing that data is also important. Time spent at this stage of your research is key for informing a future IA.

Dig deeper to understand your users Problems Needs and Goals

Despite resource limitations, this Content Audit project successfully utilised proto-personas to gain a deeper understanding of user needs. By consolidating and refining persona data into meaningful ‘chunks’, and effectively communicating findings to stakeholders, all lead to a deeper comprehension of users for all involved. This empowered us to move forward with the next stage – using experience maps to uncover user behaviour and emotions.
Experience maps are your tools to excavate the nuances of user behaviour, emotions, and motivations. Use this to win over their hearts and minds.

Empathy-driven UX through personas and experience maps

By delving into the emotional landscape of proto-personas, I gained a deeper understanding of user needs, problems, and goals. This insight fuelled the development of a clear and empathetic experience map.

A thorough understanding of your personas, or audience types will unveil a deeper comprehension of your users’ needs, aspirations, and behaviours. As commonalities and patterns surface, use UX and service design skills to illuminate the core needs of your personas.

Common Thread and Outcomes

Despite resource limitations, this Content Audit project successfully utilised proto-personas to gain a deeper understanding of user needs. By consolidating and refining persona data into meaningful ‘chunks’, and effectively communicating findings to stakeholders, all lead to a deeper comprehension of users for all involved. This empowered us to move forward with the next stage – using experience maps to uncover user behaviour and emotions.
By selecting the most crucial key phrases from the workshop discussions, I was able to distil the essence of each audience type and crafted them into a call-to-arms that galvanised the mapping stage

Expertise within the team distilled the most essential insights (i.e. OUTCOMES) from the sessions, transforming them into powerful ‘calls to arms’ that served as the foundation for the mapping stage.

Next steps

By consolidating vast amounts of data into prototype persona groups, this service design approach effectively conveys insights for stakeholders to digest, leading to deeper user understanding for all involved. This then informs the next stage, ‘Using Experience Maps to uncover user behaviour and emotions.’

Please note; for client confidentiality sensitive parts of all imagery has been pixelated. All work is copyright ©RussellWebbDesign 2023

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One response to “Get to know your users better – Pt I”

  1. Using Experience Maps to uncover user behaviour – Russell Webb Design

    […] article builds upon the previous post ‘Get to know your users better‘. For a more comprehensive understanding of the UX and Service Design process that led to […]