AYEC: User Personas and Journey

Naomi knows her business well, and while the results of her work is a student getting into their best-fit college, the student is not a primary persona of the site.  Based on the business and marketing goals and discussion of what Naomi does for her clients, the site is 95% geared toward Parents. The parent is really the "buyer".  The “customer” is both parent and student.

One thing that both parents and students share is the emotions around college and college applications: confusion, fear, anxiety and stress.  Getting into the college of your choice involves early planning, understanding "the game", paperwork, potential travel, and essay writing.  And figuring out WHAT the colleges of your choice are requires a healthy dose of introspection and realism.

Primary Persona: Parent of Student

• Age: 40-60

• Activities: learn about Naomi and AYEC services and abilities, help their children through the processes

Minor Persona: Prospective College Student

• Age: 14-18 (discussions and processes can begin in 8th grade because of choice of classes to take)

• Activities: gain access to other resources and tools that assist in the college application process

User Journey

The data in the website is not conducive to an actual User Journey, even though the college process is very much a journey for the customer.  It's just that the site itself is not the tool to use through that journey.  For the Parent persona, it is just information to read at the beginning of the business transaction with AYEC.  Meetings with Naomi are the real tools. 

Two things that both personas may come back to are the list of Resources and the Student Portal.  These are all external links and tools, and so are really just a convenience, as clients may save these URL's in their browsers.  There is certainly a User Journey in the Student Portal website, but that is not covered by this study.
 

NEXT: Design Issues