Personas

will change this image it is under copyright, its just for now i like this guy J.L

According to Calabria, T. " Personas identify the user motivations, expectations and goals responsible for driving online behaviour, and bring users to life by giving them names, personalities and often a photo". (2004).

PRIMARY PERSONA Joe Rosco, 58

The first archetypal user of the Skyliner`s web site is Joe Rosco, a 58 year old college educated upper class individual from an Italian background. He is artistic with a distinct taste in music -likes jazz music and is interested in supporting local bands. He has been retired for the past 5 years; he has a big family and a lot of friends. He is often invited to gala parties that help the Italian community stay abreast. He likes drinking wine and wants to become better at ballroom dancing. He has been married to an Italian woman for 25 years who he absolutely adores and likes to surprise every time he has a chance-he recently signed up for ballroom dance classes. He is not pressed for time and likes combining web surfing with TV viewing during or after prime time hours. He is a basic computer and Internet user: familiar with browser functions, however is not very apt at using the Internet to research. He often relies on his personal social capital to keep up to date with Big Band's popular jazz names -- his friends often discuss jazz music during social gatherings. Then, Joe Rosco goes on the web to research of Big Bands mentioned during these outings. When using the computer, he does not like coming across alerts and messages on the screen (especially when he did not requested them and/or did not expect) thus he ignores their feedback and ends up frustrated and helpless.He expects to have a seamless web experience because he does not have the patience to spend any time figuring things out. He has a decreased sight, wears 2.5 diopter reading glasses.

This user`s design implication on our site are as follow:

• The web site is information rich (designed for someone who is not pressed for time, one who can really connect to all the members by reading their bios under the 'the band' tab); • The web site takes care of 'visibility of system status' (Jacob Nielsen #1 Principle) by having visited links change color once they were visited; • The site functions as a 'match between the system and the real world' (Jacob Nielsen #2 Principle) on 'the band' page, each member's box is a different colour so it's easier to discriminate information (this is similar to verbal communication where pauses are used to signify the end of one piece of information and the start of another one); • The web site utilizes "[recognition] rather than recall" (Jacob Nielsen #6 Principle) on single news posts (sub pages of 'news'). There is a 'return to news' link at the bottom of the article. Seniors sometimes have trouble navigating back to the main news page due to overly complex usability systems, and so we have simplified that process by making the link easy and accessible to all viewers at the end of each article. • The web site provides for pleasurable surfing: audio and video samples can be found under the 'media' tab; • The web site keeps this user up to date with events happening on a regular base such as "house dance band" at Barrie’s City Hall Rotunda performing their monthly 'Make Believe Ballroom', all found under the 'events' tab.



SECONDARY PERSONA Michelle Jivesky, 28

Michelle is a 28 year old, university alumni working as a coordinator for a local charity organization.She is a very dynamic, friendly, jittery person who likes people and likes being surrounded by people. Her social nature is due in part to her mixture of Latin roots and Eastern European party spirit. She is addicted to coffee, often goes long hours without any sleep. Her life revolves around her career because she spends countless hours putting everything together. She uses the web for research and is efficient at scanning information. Her goal is making sure that fundraisers attract the right audience to raise more money, thus she needs to make sure that all the fine details are being taken care of, with music being one of the more important ones.

In terms of design implications, for Michelle it is important to note that:

• She believes that being presentable, i.e having an aesthetically pleasing web site, makes a candidate appear more competent. As a result, the designers' goal was to make the web site visually appealing - if Michelle wants to deal with the Skyliners, she will make a judgment after having used the web site for only 5 minutes. • She is often timed in her hunt for usable information, therefore the navigation system needs to be efficient at mapping what information is located where on the site. (Q: Is the band available on date X?=> check 'upcoming events' ). The 'events' tab is important for both Joe and Michelle. • If Michelle is happy with what her initial research suggests then she has the option to go to 'contact us' tab, located in both the top and bottom global navigation [Twitter?]

COMPLEMENTARY PERSONA This person makes for different product altogether, the web site is too static for them.