Creating Personas to inform Content Design
Background
Pharmaceutical company Pfizer commissioned the agency I worked with to create a website for patients (those on prescriptions, and those using lifestyle to manage symptoms) and their carers.
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The brief was to develop an in-depth understanding of their attitudes, needs and motivations through the journey from “symptom aware” to “treatment” (and adherence) across 13 different chronic conditions. The ultimate goal was to inform the content strategy.
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In addition to understanding the users, I scoped out the wireframes for the proposed website.
One of the challenges I faced was the lack of a firm content plan. ​
Approach
​The research commenced with a series of stakeholder workshops, focus groups with patients and carers, and surveys to identify attitudes and abilities and surface their content needs (types of content, tone of voice etc.)​
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From this research, I developed personas based on capability, confidence, and context of use.
The personas were designed as practical tools to support decision-making, helping teams align content, structure, and design around real user needs.
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I ran a workshop with non-digital content writers to assist them in creating a content plan and copy for the website, and shared annotated templates for them to work with.
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Working closely with the content team, I designed a flexible, modular set of wireframes in order to accommodate different types of content.
Research Methods
The research was a blend of desk research, keyword analysis, market trend analysis, focus groups and surveys.
Key areas of investigation for research were identified.
Insights
The themes that emerged were clear, and we were able to sketch composites to create personas that represented the various potential user groups for the website, based on attitudes and behaviours around their condition.
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Patients first want to treat their conditions through holistic, natural lifestyle solutions and avoid taking drugs, or at least reliance on drugs, if at all possible
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Pharmaceutical companies are mistrusted, almost without exception
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Generic 'heard it all before' healthy lifestyle information were cited as being off-putting. Content has to contain condition specific, authentic, non-cliché advice
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Patients are frustrated by conflicting information across sources - they want myth busting
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Carers also formed part of the user groups, and often had their own health problems
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Often patients and carers have multiple conditions
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Personas
The conditions ranged from Erectile Dysfunction to Alzheimers, and the attitudes and needs varied.
There were three primary personas that encapsulated the content needs of the vast majority of users.
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Based on content needs, there were four secondary personas with distinct, additional needs that lay beneath each of the primary personas.
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For example, both Caring Mum and Lone Wolf Cub personas generally sat beneath Support Seeker.
Two tertiary personas were identified for the Client (Suck it & See who may move into another persona in the future, and Smokers, who had their own website).
Attitudinal Matrix
To further aid the Client understanding of the user groups, the personas were put onto a scale that marked their trust and confidence based on their ability to understand information on medication and management of their condition.
Mapping Journeys
We needed to understand the user journeys for these patients. This would show us how we could best serve them content at their point of need, as well as how likely they would be to proactively seek information.
In addition to giving the client the insights they needed into their potential audience, the personas also provided clear content needs, based around where they are within their condition journey.