Who Are You and What Do you Want?

Why would an experience design brief be important?

To complete any design project, there needs to be some sort of brief between the client and the designer. Without a brief, we are just guessing. With no understanding of the basics: like what is the job for? and who is the target market? it would be like playing pin the tail on the donkey: we know we are supposed to do but is it actually a donkey what sort of tail would he like?

When taking an effect brief from a client, we need to take in so much more than only what the client is saying with intuition playing a huge role in gaining an understanding of not only what the client wants but also who they are. Taking the brief is one thing but, if not undertaking the design work yourself, you then need to effectively communicate to the designer working on the project all of those vital and unsaid details.

In my office, we have a briefing sheet that we give to our clients that tries to dig up some of these unsaid details. Funnily enough more often than not these questions are left unanswered with comments being ‘we don’t know’ which means more digging on our part.

Well written briefs are great if you have that initial understanding of the client, with new clients however, only having a brief, no matter how well written, can be missing that little extra if you can’t talk directly to the client. In my experience when working with an account manager that doesn’t want the designer to talk to the client???, the situation can go pear shaped because they haven’t been able to communicate the clients needs effectively. In one case, the account exec was putting their own spin on what the client wanted. Disaster!!!

So after my rambling, briefs are very important to the design process because that help make sure everyone is on the same page and stay on brief and target for the project. There is however no substitute for meeting with the client and designers to discuss the project to gain the best understanding possible of the requirement for the job.

So why are experience design briefs important? So that the experience designer can clearly articulate to the designers and developers how the personality of a website need to be developed so as to maximise the user experience in a particular way. I also think that the greatest benefit of an experience design brief, is to assist those who don’t necessarily have the ability to understand an experience or empathise with a persona do so.

Cheers Paul

Personas

Blair Martin – Young Professional and World Traveler

Blair Martin is 32 years old lawyer living in Paddington in Sydney. He and his partner have been together for 3 years. They recently bought a luxury apartment choosing apartment living so that they can up and go whenever it suits them, without the worry of looking after a house.

Blair loves to travel and heads off overseas at least twice a year. Blair loves to be prepared and spends considerable time online researching his next destination, the best areas to stay in and what to see while visiting each city.

Even though he and his partner have reasonably high disposable incomes, Blair loves a bargain and searches for the best accommodation deals to be found. He does however like his accommodation to be slightly more than comfortable so access to as much detail about the chosen hotel as possible is a necessity.

Being a lawyer however means that he can be time poor and doesn’t like to waste what time he has on difficult systems that aren’t intuitive.

Web Usage

Blair is extremely computer savvy and uses the Internet everyday for work and personal use. He also experienced in using online booking systems for travel and accommodation. He is also used to negotiating airline websites to get the best seat possible when checking in online.

Using Hotel Club

Blair uses Hotel Club for the club benefits and great variety of hotels listed on the website. He checks back frequently when planning a trip to make sure he has the best deal possible for accommodation at his planned destination.

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Alison Whitely – Personal Assistant and Mother of Two

Alison is a 54 year old mother of two who has recently gone back to work after being a stay at home Mum until her youngest went off to college 2 years ago. After some encouragement from her husband Ben, Alison got a job as a PA for the Managing Director of a International Marketing Agency based in her home town of San Francisco.

Her new job is challenging and she sometimes feels she’s been thrown in the deep end with all of this new technology she has to get used to. Her kids give her some pointers when they are home and she is well versed with using email and Facebook. She says she had to get used to these things because the kids never call.

Part of her role is to make travel arrangements and book hotel accommodation for her boss when he travels overseas on business. Her boss likes to stay in style but has a responsibility to the shareholders to make sure he isn’t spending unnecessarily. This means Alison needs to find quality accommodation on a budget.

Web Usage

With her new job, Alison has had a steep learning curve on how to use the Internet. She is still wary about using her credit card online and feels that some of the personal aspects of life have been lost with everything being done over the Internet. She is however now using the Internet for her own personal banking, paying bills and some shopping on the internet but only from reputable people like Amazon.

Using Hotel Club

Alison uses hotel Club to book accommodation for her Boss. She likes the hotel listings and the photos of the hotels so she can show her boss what the rooms and facilities look like before he leaves.