PERSONAS CASE STUDY
BACKGROUND
In 2010, the agency I was working with was commissioned to redesign a patient facing website for pharmaceutical company, Pfizer.
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As their Senior User Experience Architect, my job was to scope out the wireframes for the proposed website. One of the challenges I faced was the lack of a firm content plan and I resolved this by adopting a flexible, modular approach in order to accommodate different types of content, and ran a workshop for non-digital content providers.
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In addition, Pfizer knew very little about their audience, and our team ran a series of workshops, focus groups and surveys to identify who their users were, and what their content needs are.
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Pfizer wanted to focus on patients with 11 chronic conditions, as well as smokers.
CONSUMER JOURNEY
We needed to understand the user journeys for patients with chronic conditions. 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.
The research was a blend of desk research, keyword analysis, market trend analysis, focus groups and surveys.
Key Research Areas
The focus on the research was around four key areas of investigation.
The following insights emerged :
1.
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
2.
Pharmaceutical companies are mistrusted, almost without exception
3.
Consumers are turned off by generic 'heard it all before' healthy lifestyle information - content has to contain condition specific, authentic, non-cliché advice
4.
Consumers are frustrated by conflicting information across sources - they want myth busting
5.
Carers also formed part of the user groups, and often had their own health problems
6.
Often patients and carers have multiple conditions
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.
ATTITUDINAL MATRIX
An attitudinal matrix was developed, to assist with the sorting of personas.
The following insights emerged :
PERSONA SORTING
The personas were sorted according to their business importance and receptivity to healthcare information provided by a pharmaceutical company.
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.