We write custom scripts to analyze site design

When analyzing each new project, immediately before designing its design, functionality and information architecture, in order to better understand the main task of the site, Yes, and any information system, it is very useful to “run” scenarios of user interaction with the system. It is always good to understand for whom exactly you are doing the site, and not just to keep in mind the abbreviation “Central Asia”.

In order for the script not to turn out to be “cardboard”, far-fetched and pre-sharpened to the wishes, for example, the designer, it is important to work the characters in much more detail than dividing the target audience by gender or financial position, for example, the character “working mother of two” children ”can be both an ambulance doctor and a freelance designer. To create a more objective and high-quality character, you need to answer the following questions:

• What's your name? Give the character a name that makes him believe more in his reality.
• Who it? Describe the main characteristics: gender; age; financial position; marital status; place of work
• Why come? Describe the main (if necessary, and additional) purpose of the site visit
• Where did you start? Think of what page (for each character the page can be different) the character got on the site and how this page can help him solve the problem. I recommend inventing the login page as “non-typical” as possible, because it’s not a fact that they will enter through the main page.
• What character? Come up with a character character (more on the characters below)

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In the book “Call to action” dedicated analytics design online stores are invited to divide the characters of the characters into 4 categories:

• Methodical - people with such a temperament love authentic facts, a clear and logical directory structure. They tend to subconsciously ask themselves the question: " How can this site help me solve a problem?"
• Spontaneous - the most important thing for them is to get what they want and not methodically going through the pages of the catalog, but already from the first seconds of being on the site. It is assumed that they would prefer to use a simple search rather than browse the catalog page by page or understand the advanced filter. More attention is paid to bright “spots” on a page like a big red button with an inscription “... right now!”. They tend to subconsciously ask themselves the question: “ How can this site help me solve a problem right now ?”
• Humanistic type of character - these people are more inclined to thoughtful reading of information (for example, the “Testimonials” section), to look at design elements, etc. They want to know the answer to the question “ Who else has this site helped solve the same problem?”
• Rival - here the name speaks for itself. People with such a character are more “focused on the result” and are ready to go metolically and consistently towards it. For example, they will appreciate the possibility of using the advanced filter to search for goods by parameters in order to get exactly what they were looking for. They want to know the answer to the question “ What exactly will give me a visit to this site?”

It is worth noting that the book proposes to think over the character when writing “selling texts”, but I believe that the method is also valid for design design, since the character is global and applies to everything. It is also necessary to remember that there are no 100% representatives of one or another type of character and the presented types of characters are largely a refined generalization, but for understanding what drives a person this is enough.

Ideally, each page of the site should give what each character needs with any character, i.e. to be fairly universal.

A real example of a character for the design of the site of a shoe store compiled by our designer:

“ General description: Irina, 35 years old, accountant. On duty he spends a lot of time at the computer and copes with it quite well. Tends to systematically analyze incoming information. Like any woman, she looks after her appearance, but does not like to spend too much time in stores.

Device: desktop computer (or tablet).

Purpose: to find a specific model of shoes, find out the availability in other stores.

History: Irina was already in one of the Favorite Footwear stores, where she liked very cute black autumn shoes. But, unfortunately, was not the right size. At home, Irina decided to go to the site and find out in which store she can buy these shoes. Typing in Yandex "favorite shoes" she immediately went to the main page of the site. Unfortunately, Irina did not remember the brand, much less the model's article. Therefore, she decided to search through the catalog of goods. I pressed "For women", then "Shoes", after which I saw that I could filter out shoes by color, material, season, etc. After selecting the right filters, there are only 3 pairs of shoes left, one of which was the black autumn shoes. After looking at the photos of the model from different angles and making sure that this is the model, Irina clicked on the link “Find out where to buy”, saw the list of Favorite Footwear stores and called the nearest one. The manager found out that a pair of the right size is available in this store and set it aside for Irina.

Conclusions for the site: to make it clear that you can find out about the availability of the product, its price, etc., as well as reserve the product by calling your favorite shoe store in any retail store. ”

To reduce the time for inventing scenarios, you can prepare characters with photos of real people and their description of their characteristics so that at the right moment you can simply reach the desired template and put it on the table for greater visualization. So far we have no such practice, but I think we will come to it when a sufficient number of diverse characters have accumulated.

Used literature: “Call to action” (authors: Brian Eisenberg, Jeffrey Aisegnberg. Publ. “Mann, Ivanov and Ferber”)