For this phase of the project, I will be describing the target audience of my website, the user journey, the website content and a general overview of IA (Information Architecture).
To be able to view my website from the potential users’ point of view, I will be creating a journey mapping that would explain every step that my users might go through to reach the different touchpoints I have in mind.
First of all, I had to clearly understand the scoop of my website, concluding that it is to promote Latin American culture through the services they provide to the residents.
Who am I designing my website for?
I wanted to make sure my website was addressed to the right audience. Therefore, I decided to create user personas as a method to know who I am designing for. However, before creating my two user personas, I did some quantitative and qualitative research. I did a survey of six questions for people between the ages of 27 and 50 and an interview with a 68-year-old pensioner. This was done to make my user personas more understandable.
Questions to understand potential users
13 people answered my survey, helping me understand more about my potential users and getting a new perspective. The results of my survey is shown below:
Thanks to the people who completed the survey, I can conclude that 92% of the interviewed people like supporting local business, but over 60% haven’t used any Latin American business service in the last few weeks. Also, as customers, two of the businesses that draw their attention the most are restaurants and grocery stores. However, something that persuades them to learn a new culture is the curiosity to know more about their lifestyle (35%) than to try new dishes (27%). When asked if they were familiar with the Latin American community in London, 62% said yes and just 8% said no, and fortunately for my project over 92% said that they would be interested in knowing more about the Latin American community in London.
As mentioned before, I did qualitative research too. I had a short interview with an English person who is 68-year-old. During the interview, he said that he prefers supporting local businesses instead of large chains. Also, he loves trying new cuisines and cultural events. He knows a bit about the Latin American community in London but hasn’t used any service provided by this community in the last few months. He loves going to restaurants, and he definitely would like to know more about the Latin American community in London. When asked about what devices he uses when searching for a new place to go, he said that he normally uses his tablet as he is not very familiar with his mobile phone.
Based on this research, my potential users would be people over the age of 25, who are not part of London’s Latin American community but are already motivated to explore this culture. Some of the behaviour patterns they would have are that they normally try new businesses because they are already familiar with them. If they try something new, it is because it was recommended by someone they trust or checked reviews and images online. They share a common goal: they would like to try new restaurants and shops while supporting local businesses, but they struggle when researching new places they could go to.
Here are the two user personas I created based on theresults mentioned above.
User personas
First User Persona – James Aitken. He is 65-year-old and retired. He was a journalist, meaning that he likes researching, reading, and is open to new experiences. He loves spending quality time with his love ones and going to social gatherings as he is a very social person. His goals include trying new cuisines, improving his foreign-language skills as he speaks Spanish and French, and enjoying his retirement with his family and friends.
Some of Aitken’s frustrations are not finding enough people to practice his Spanish skills meaning that having a website that tells you where to explore the Latin American community in London can be useful for him as these are places where he can find people to speak Spanish with. Also, he struggles to find new places to take his love ones. Therefore this website can help him too as he will be able to see these places’ images to make sure that his family would like it. Another frustration he has is not knowing where to explore a different culture within London, as he is used to travelling when he wants to explore a new environment.
Second User Persona – Lilly Esposito. She is 28-year-old and works in customer service, full-time. She knows that supporting local businesses is a way to build a strong economy and community. She was born in Italy and moved to London when she was a teenager, meaning that she has already explored different cultures, making her more open to new cultures. She is a very social person. Her hobbies include reading blogs and watching videos of people showing their lifestyle in different countries as she feels that these videos help her understand different traditions/cultures.
Her goals are to open her own catering service, so she would love to try new cuisines. Also, to learn a new language and to explore new environments. However, her frustrations include the lack of knowledge of other cultures and not knowing how to get involved in other communities. She doesn’t have enough time to meet new people or research places where she could socialise.
Possible Scenarios
A possible scenario that one of my potential users could go through is that he/she is finding a new place to hang out with friends, expecting to enjoy the evening in a nice and welcoming environment.
Due to possible scenarios like the one mentioned above, I can consider a list of different touchpoints:
Before visiting the website
- Social media – customer acquisition.
- Word of mouth – people trust family/friends for referrals.
- SEO – easy to find for curious Google searchers.
- Blog content – quality content will draw users’ attention.
- Press releases – to reach different consumers.
While visiting the website
- Navigating – finding places they’d like to go.
- Blog posts – reading interesting/motivational stories.
- Vlogs – watching entertaining videos.
- Photography – looking at beautiful images.
- Social media – following content on social media.
- Newsletter – Subscribing to the newsletter.
After visiting the website
- Marketing emails – new content notification, they’ll come back if they like what they read.
- Community management – positive interaction with users on the different platforms.
- Opportunities – let users now about opportunities to be part of the content, through personal stories or business information.
A short summary of the different points that I have covered above is:
Potential users’ motivation – To experience a new environment and culture, including flavours, music, people.
Channels that they might use – Social media, website, newsletter and physically.
Possible Actions – The user would like to try a new cuisine, so starts looking for a recommended restaurant and finds the website that talks about Latin American businesses including great restaurants so the user finds one that draws her/his attention and then he/she keeps exploring the website, ending up following it on social media.
Pain points – Distance of the business they would like to go. Also, not finding the information appealing enough.
Sketching the journey
A pattern that Anna and James have in common is that they have heard of the Latin American culture before. Therefore, they are already motivated to explore it, meaning that my website would be the bridge for them to do that.
Information Architecture
This is just a rough idea of the different levels I have in mind for my website, but there are still many points to consider when talking about my website’s information architecture.
My website would consist of different pages showing some of the different businesses that the Latin American community provides to the residents. It will also include a blog where I will share vlogs and motivational stories. The majority of pages will include external links which people could visit to find more information about what they are looking for, for example, websites of the restaurants and social media platforms.
A possible organization system I will have on my website is the hierarchical system. However, some other information architecture system components still need to be addressed as I do not want my website to be a directory of businesses.
Conclusion
Latin American culture is what set these businesses apart from others. Latin Americans use tropical patterns and bright colours, as they tend to represent their personality by a mixture of vivid colours. Also, Latin Americans believe that if you enjoy the music you are hearing, it should be shared with everyone else. This is why customers will probably hear music that would make them dance, such as salsa, mambo, tango rumba, and many more. These are some of the many characteristics that would set these businesses apart.
One of my aims when launching the website is to have at least six businesses on it to have enough information to guide the users to explore this amazing community.
Feedback
- IA should not look like a listing site. Generic content of Latin American culture should be considered in order to understand the demography of my website.
- Include an extra user persona who has an interest in Latin American businesses, so I could have a wider perspective.
- A business can be used as the base to introduce my website to the users.