Personas
What are Personas?
A persona is a representation of your websites target users.
How we chose our primary and secondary personas
We chose our primary and secondary personas by examining our data collected through our interviews. We discovered that our primary personas were primarily amateur plant growers who were people in their early 20s. Many college students either started planting when they first came to college, or they continued planting in a new environment. As many students in their 20s live in dorms or smaller apartment spaces, they had to learn to grow plants in an environment with less space and less sunlight as opposed to an outdoor garden. It was more common for students to grow succulents as opposed to fresh fruits and vegetables due to the limited environment. The app is primarily designed to help people grow their plants by giving them tips, routines, and reminders of how to care for their plants. As people in their 20s are more adept with technology, this app is primarily targeted to a younger audience to help them care for their plants.
For our secondary persona, we decided that this group would be advanced plant growers who sell plants and own a nursery. We decided this to be our secondary persona because advanced plant growers would use our app to learn more about their plants, connect people to their nursery, give tips to amateur plant growers, and educate others. We considered people in this group to be an older audience, around the age of 45, because people who own plant nurseries usually have their own garden at their home and would be more educated about plants than a student in college. This group is our secondary persona because people around the age 45 may not be as adept with technology as compared to college students. It might not feel as natural to them to use an app to help them with their plants. They might prefer books or just the internet rather than an app on their phone. However, they are still an essential group that may use the app to educate others and themselves.
Primary Persona, Plant Buyer / Amateur Plant Grower
Our primary persona was people who purchase plants. We determined their psychographic attributes by considering what kinds of people would prefer the caretaking of plants over another interest. An amateur plant grower’s occupation is relevant because it puts a constraint on their time, availability, and commitment to their plants which allows us to understand how they will view and ultimately use our app. Understanding that they might not have the same level of availability (as most amateur plant growers are university students or recent graduates) as experienced plant growers/sellers will show us that we need to make our app user-friendly and easy to use so that caring for your plant becomes a quick and easy task that aligns with their psychographic attributes. We decided that amateur plant growers would most likely be university students because they are at that stage in their life where they will probably have enough responsibility to take care of their plants on their own (vs at home where they can rely on their family if they neglect their duties). Yet because they aren’t fully independent and are now juggling the requirements of university, their commitment may not be bulletproof which is why we intend our application to help with that transition.
Secondary Persona, Plant Seller / Nursery Owner
Our secondary persona was people who sell plants. A plant seller's occupation is relevant because it frames how they will use our application as opposed to someone who purchases plants. Most often, plant sellers will be nursery owners, and this is relevant because it changes what their needs will be when accessing our app. We found that plant sellers will most likely want to increase outreach within their community, both for growing their business and a sense of camaraderie among other plant enthusiasts. Understanding these goals, we can tailor our app such that plant sellers can indicate that they own a business in their user profile as well as implementing a Q&A forum for the sellers to interact with the buyers for updates and answers allowing them to garner a sense of trust and community with people who share their interest. Plant sellers are most likely nursery owners because it gives them the professional environment and space to take care of and sell mass amounts of plants.