User scenario approach for delivering a positive web site experience

OTOi, Creative Services Team | One to One Interactive
July 31, 2003

There are always new and different challenges involved when building a website. These challenges can range from basic time and budget constraints to more complex issues dealing with the design and technology of a build. With these project issues, and many other ones that may "pop-up" during the build, it is very easy for a team to quickly lose sight of the most important goal of any website: providing an engaging and positive user experience.

How to provide a "positive user experience" can be a very subjective and opinionated discussion. There are hundreds of different variables that are involved, and not all are created equal. This often leads to lengthy discussions and analysis of the situation. If not managed or documented properly, the discussions may lead to a website that misses all of the intended business objectives, and provides little or no real value to the end-user.

The key to managing the "positive user experience" debate is to keep it focused on the target audience needs and goals. By grounding your site design and information architecture in clearly defined user needs, your will be much more likely to create a site with an optimal user experience.

The User Scenario Matrix

One to One Interactive has developed a tool called the User Scenario Matrix ("USM") in order to stay focused on the user needs during a site build or redesign. The USM allows the project team to easily work with a client in developing multiple user scenarios for their website(s). These scenarios communicate and capture key elements that are needed to design an optimal user experience:

Audience Priority: Defines the priority of selected audience segments within this channel, so that content may be arranged accordingly.

Target Audience: Audience segmentation is critical to determining which messaging or content will best resonate with different site visitors.

Context: Defines the audience segment's needs or context for visiting site.

Benefits: Describes the intended benefit the site could provide to each segment.

Barriers: Identifies possible barriers that may prevent us from communicating the messaging to each segment.

Levers: Identifies what assets, messaging or tools are available that could help us overcome those barriers.

Calls to Action: Indicates what we want the user to do at the site.

Assets/Content: Identifies the assets/content available that would support the call(s) to action and/or address the stated barrier(s).

Success Metrics: Defines the metrics we would use to evaluate success for each particular call to action.

USM in Action

It is important to stress that when working with the USM, the two most important columns to pay attention to are the "Priority," and "Target Audience" columns. This is because the prioritization and target audience definitions become the key constants that drive all other assumptions captured within the matrix. The more insightful and accurate your audience segmentation & prioritization is, the clearer the picture of their needs will be to the team.

Priority	Target Audience	Context	Benefits	Barriers
Rank order, or indicate "high," "medium" or "low"	List segments and any assumptions	List audience needs or context for visiting site	Reasons to believe	What may prevent us from communicating this messaging to this segment?
High	Pharmacists • PharmD • Director of Pharmacy • Pharmacy Purchasing Role: Buyer and brand decision maker Motivators: Price is the key driver Other: • High Internet usage • Receptive to [Client] messaging	How can I make my job easier (i.e. ordering, storing, preparing for use/mixing)? How can I save money? Can [Client] help me do either of those things? I'd like to be up to date on the latest issues and trends in the industry.	The site provides information that keeps me informed and helps me to manage the ordering process. The site supports [Client] reputation for being a consultative partner, not just a product-pusher. [Client] is well positioned to provide trusted products & services — objective & credible company w/ R&D heritage. [Client] is building a reputation as being an innovator in this therapy area.	[Competitor] has a more cost effective distribution model. [Competitor] has already launched an updated product. I've had shelf-life problems with [Client] product in the past. I don't know/don't care that different brands exist. Who is [Client] and why should I care that they manufacture/market this product? I need clinical data/proof points.

Another valuable use of the USM is to identify potential content needs: often times the USM exercise will identify an end user need for which there is not corresponding content available. Missing content or functionality is then assessed for feasibility, business, and user value. This allows us to prioritize and see what makes the most sense to build for the first release. The content or functionality that does not make the cut can then be cataloged and saved for a future release.

Conclusion

The key to providing an engaging and positive user experience on your website is to truly understand the needs of your target audience. The more you know what they want, the easier it is to provide a site that offers it. One to One Interactive's User Scenario Matrix is an easy-to-use tool that helps clarify what you do know about your users and what you may need to learn more about. It also serves as a good tool to keep the web development team focused on overcoming obstacles that may hinder the user from achieving their goals. By keeping key design decisions focused on user's needs, the final website will be much more likely to provide an optimal user experience, and prove to be a successful marketing tactic.

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