The document summarizes a presentation given by Bethany Bauman and Lacey Kruger on using audience analysis to enhance a website. It discusses why understanding users is important, how to conduct research through surveys, interviews and usability tests, synthesizing findings to create user personas, and how the American Diabetes Association used personas to redesign their website to better meet user needs. Key takeaways are to identify priority user groups, gather feedback to build consensus on personas, and apply personas to the website structure to ensure clear pathways for relevant information and engagement.

1. Using Your Users: Enhancing your
Web Site through Audience Analysis
Bethany Bauman, Associate Director, eCRM, American Diabetes Association
Lacey Kruger, Senior Information Architect, Convio
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
© Convio, Inc. © 2008 Convio, Inc.

2. Introductions
■ Bethany Bauman
American Diabetes Association
Associate Director, eCRM
■ Lacey Kruger
Convio
Senior Information Architect
© Convio, Inc. 2

3. What We’ll Cover
■ Why and how to use your users
■ What to do with your findings
■ ADA’s success story
■ Q and A
© Convio, Inc. 3

4. Why you should use your users
User (noun) - One who uses or makes use of
something, a consumer
■ Why are they important?
 Donors
 Volunteers
 Activists
■ How can we use them?
 RESEARCH!
© Convio, Inc. 4

5. How to use your users – Research!
■ You have some at your fingertips…
 Consolidate constituent comments and emails
 User-generated content
 Analytics data
■ Research techniques
 Online Survey
 Interviews Users
 Usability Tests
© Convio, Inc. 5

6. What to do with your findings
■ Synthesize and Build Consensus
 Personas
 Recommendations
■ Identify the holes
 Gap Analysis
■ Iterate!
 Enhance your site based on your research
© Convio, Inc. 6

7. ADA’s Success Story
■ Background
 Site launched in
2004 based on how
the organization
viewed itself
 Siloed content and
no engagement
pathways
© Convio, Inc. 7

8. Where we started: Research!
■ Reviewed existing data
 Search logs and basic web traffic metrics
 Initial content inventory
 Message boards
■ Interviews and Surveys
 In-person interviews with key internal stakeholders
• Our content was not well-organized and there
was too much of it
• We don’t give people clear options or help
them find what they need
• Our site isn’t personal or engaging enough
• Our site only facilitates one-way conversation
© Convio, Inc.

9. More research!
■ Discovery Workshop
 Facilitated by our design firm (Siteworx) to build
consensus on:
• What ADA needed to succeed
• What diabetes.org needed to succeed
• Who should be served by diabetes.org
• What our constituents want to do online
• What online content and functionality helps them
do what they want
© Convio, Inc.

10. And more research! (Are you getting how important the
research is yet?)
■ Focus Groups and Card Sorts
 3 sessions
• Newly diagnosed, at risk or no relationship to
diabetes
• Lived with diabetes for at least 1 year
• Call Center staff
 Asked open-ended questions to determine needs,
usage patterns, and willingness to interact with other
users
 Had participants sort 108 topic cards based on
interviews, discovery workshops, etc. (i.e.: nutrition,
exercise, discrimination, etc.)
© Convio, Inc.

11. Creating our personas from research outcomes
■ Three themes emerged in terms of what our
audiences were looking for:
 Managing diabetes
 Food and nutrition
 Engagement (i.e.: volunteer, give, etc.)
■ That meant we needed to:
 Focus our architecture, content and engagement
opportunities on helping people manage diabetes
and understanding food and nutrition as they pertain
to the disease
 Provide engagement opportunities that were
contextual to the user’s experience on the site
© Convio, Inc.

12. The people we want to engage
■ Using the research, Convio developed 7
Constituent Personas to focus the web site
redesign and additional marketing efforts moving
forward
Persona (noun) - Representative, fictional
constituent character used to envision and test
the new information architecture and visual
design for the site
© Convio, Inc.

13. Diana – Adult with Type 2 Diabetes
Demographics "I know nothing about diabetes and I’m overwhelmed. I
•43-years-old want to know what to do, what to eat and if it’s going
•Middle income to get worse."
•Works full time
•Married, with 2 children
Description
•Diana works full-time as a paralegal in a busy office. She’s also a full-time mom to an 8-year-old
daughter, 10-year-old son and 48-year-old husband.
•Diana was recently diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes and is worried about all of the ways it will
affect her life, her job and her family.
•She’s heard conflicting advice from her friends, family and various doctors about what she
should and shouldn’t eat and how often she should monitor her blood sugar.
•Diana hasn’t found a doctor she trusts and has questions about how to manage diabetes.
Technological
•Diana has a Blackberry she uses for work so she can always be available via email.
•Being a busy mother of two, she doesn’t spend much time online for personal use – only a few minutes each night checking emails.
•Diana also recently got a Facebook account so she could watch over her kids’ pages and also keep up with her friends.
Needs
•Being recently diagnosed and still struggling to manage diabetes, Diana wants to find practical ways she can change her lifestyle to keep the disease under
control.
•She’s still learning how to eat and test and would benefit from hearing others’ experiences to help her determine what’s good, bad and normal.
•Diana would like to know of some doctors in her area or some criteria to look for to help her find a good doctor.
•She’s interested in knowing what her rights are at work too now that she’s been diagnosed so she can know who she should tell and how to tell them.
•Diana wants to find ways to encourage a healthy lifestyle and eating habits for her children to prevent them from getting diabetes.
Scenario
•After work one evening, Diana is feeling a little icky and decides she’s not up to making dinner. She picks up a pizza for the family and gets a salad for herself.
When she gets home, she tests her blood sugar and realizes its extra high so she gets online to find out what the cause might be. So many sites have
conflicting information that she really wants to talk to someone or hear opinions from others going through the same thing.
© Convio, Inc.

14. Amanda - Parent
Demographics “I’d like quick resources to share
•47-years-old with my busy husband about how
•Upper income to react in an emergency”
•Works as a full time mom
•Married, 3 kids
Description
•Amanda is a full time mom for her 3 kids, the oldest of which (Matthew) was just diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes at
age 13. Her husband (Steve) works full-time as an architect.
•Amanda’s father-in-law has Type 1 diabetes, but she is relatively unfamiliar with the disease and is still working out
the kinks of what Matthew can eat and when to test his blood sugar.
•Her husband works long hours and it’s been difficult for Amanda to educate him on the basics of taking care of
Matthew. They have different styles of approaching the disease as Amanda tends to baby the kids and is always
checking in on Matthew, where Steve would rather pretend everything’s okay.
Technological
•Amanda spends a lot of time on their high-speed Internet during the day, doing research on diabetes, checking email
and reading news.
•She doesn’t have a mobile device and isn’t interested in social networking sites.
Needs
•Amanda would love a support group of other parents like her so she can learn from their successes and mistakes and try to do best by Matthew. She’d also
like to learn from others about how they’ve coped with tension in their marriages since she and Steve seem to disagree so often nowadays.
•Since Matthew was just diagnosed, Amanda needs resources and talking points to use to inform his teachers and coaches at school about his disease.
•She’d like straightforward, factual information about what foods Matthew can eat and when to test so she can develop a plan that works for them.
•Amanda would also like quick resources and tip sheets she can use to educate Steve about what to do in case of an emergency and how to stay on track with
their maintenance plan.
Scenario
•Feeling more and more confident about which foods Matthew does well with and which foods aren’t so good, Amanda decides to create a spreadsheet with
a “Good” and “Bad” column so she can display it in the kitchen for Steve and the rest of the kids to use as a reference. Thinking there must be something like
this already available so she wouldn’t have to start from scratch, she starts Googling for resources.
© Convio, Inc.

15. Relationship Pathways
■ After creating the personas, we needed to
determine how each audience could reach our
engagement points through our new site
architecture and content
■ Convio developed relationship pathways for each
persona that we used to test our site during
design
© Convio, Inc.

16. Key eCRM Interactions
Forms Tools Monetary Events
Contact Ask the
Form Expert
Tour de
Site Live Cure
Register Chat
Store Local
Email My Food Purchase Event
Register Advisor
Donate Step Out
Volunteer Message
Form Boards
Family Action
Link Alert
Engagement
© Convio, Inc.

17. Diana – Adult with Type 2
Live Ask the Email
Chat Expert Register
Message My Food
Boards Advisor
Googles for Browses Message
Visit 1: “diabetes recently through “Living
diagnosed” with Diabetes” Boards
Visits site for Browses through My Food
Visit 2: info on what “Food and
she can eat Fitness” Advisor
“I know nothing about
diabetes and I’m
overwhelmed. I want to Visits site to browse
Glad to find tips Email
know what to do, what to through Message
Visit 3: Boards and My
on selecting a
Register
eat and if it’s going to get doctor
Food Advisor
worse."
© Convio, Inc.

18. Amanda – Parent
Message Family Donate
Boards Link
My Food Email
Advisor Register
Googles for Browses through Family
Visit 1: “diabetes and “For Parents and
school” Kids” Link
Clicks on an Browses My Food
Visit 2: email to see a “Food and
new recipe Fitness” Advisor
“I’d like quick resources to Visits the site to Reads through
the Message Donate
share with my busy Visit 3: find support
from others Boards and
husband about how to react
feels compelled
in an emergency”
© Convio, Inc.

19. Deeper Engagement
■ Once someone decides to leave an email
address and/or donation, what happens to
continue the engagement experience?
■ Based on how they interact with us, we put them
on a conversion pathway through an email
series
• Series of 4-5 emails over a 31 day period aimed
at increased engagement (larger/recurring gift,
advocacy action, etc.)
© Convio, Inc.

20. Deeper Engagement
Conversion
Flow E-mail #1 E-mail #2 E-mail #3 E-mail #4 E-mail #5
(7 days) (14 days) (24 days) (31 days)
    
New
Thank You Repeated Appeal Stewardship Second
Advocates
Auto- Thank You / Piece (i.e. appeal
responder Campaign profile piece)
with tell-a- Update /
friend Tell-a-friend
■ Goal – convert Advocates to Donors
• Need to ensure they aren’t already donors
• Appeal based on the topic of the alert taken
■ Once Advocate becomes a Donor
• Move to another communication segment
• Appeals should be for larger and/or sustaining
gifts
© Convio, Inc.

21. Personas post-launch
■ Moving forward
 The Personas will
serve as a long-term
tool for the life of the
new diabetes.org
 They can be used
repeatedly for future
decision-making to
ensure a consistent,
user-centered
approach
© Convio, Inc.

22. Three key takeaways
■ Consider your 3-4 priority audience groups and
document a description of each
■ Circulate to all internal stakeholders to gather
feedback and build consensus
■ Apply each persona to your web site’s structure
 Are there clear pathways for information each
persona is seeking?
 Are there relevant ways for each persona to engage
that are prominent and natural?
 Do you have a plan for following up with each group?
© Convio, Inc. 22

23. Questions?
Bethany Bauman Lacey Kruger
American Diabetes Association Convio
Associate Director, eCRM Senior Information Architect
bbauman@diabetes.org lkruger@convio.com
23
© Convio, Inc. © 2008 Convio, Inc.

24. Text CNV112 to 30644
to take a quick survey
about this session.
Don’t forget to visit the Expert Lab!
© Convio, Inc. © 2008 Convio, Inc.

25. Appendix – Additional Personas
and Relationship Pathways
25
© Convio, Inc. © 2008 Convio, Inc.

26. Julia – Young Adult with Type 1 Diabetes
Demographics “I’m embarrassed to ask my
•22-years-old doctor how much alcohol I can
•Lower middle income drink with diabetes.”
•Works full time
•Single, no kids
Description
•Julia works full time as a school nurse. She’s had Type 1 diabetes for 7 years and takes care of many kids with
diabetes.
•She lives an active lifestyle, surrounded by supportive friends and family and has learned to live comfortably with
her disease.
•Julia is usually confident in her boundaries and limitations as a diabetic, but sometimes has questions she’s not
comfortable asking her doctor.
•Now that she’s financially independent, she’s learning how expensive her testing supplies can be.
Technological
•Julia doesn’t spend a ton of time online at work, but she does use her high-speed Internet at home to do research
for work and for personal use after work as well.
•She likes to search for recipes, read celebrity gossip and keep up with friends on Facebook.
Needs
•Julia is already comfortable with the basic facts about her disease but since college, she’s had questions about how well her system can handle
alcohol.
•She’d like to connect with other diabetics her age to hear about their experiences living active lifestyles with diabetes. She loves exercise and the
outdoors and wants to know what kinds of limitations she should be aware of.
•Julia would like to find opportunities to volunteer for diabetes research and possibly meet some new friends in the process.
•She’d like to stay up to date and learn about the latest treatments and would also like to know how to get assistance for her supplies.
•Being a school nurse, she’d also like information on how to help children with diabetes.
Scenario
•After her morning workout, Julia gets online to check her email. She subscribes to a runners magazine and gets updates about events in her area
about once a month. She scans through the email, and then sees an event to raise money for diabetes research, which sparks her attention.
© Convio, Inc.

27. Stephanie – Young Caregiver
Demographics
•26-years-old “I want to be supportive and help raise
•Middle income awareness about diabetes and learn all I
•Works full time can about the disease.”
•Engaged to Mark, 32, who has Type 2 diabetes
Description
•Stephanie works full time as a teacher. She and Mark, now engaged, have been dating since high school.
•Since Mark’s diagnosis two years ago, they’ve been learning together about how he should eat, exercise and
monitor his blood sugar.
•Stephanie tries her best to be supportive by cooking low carb meals and joining Mark as he exercises, but she’s
also realized that she doesn’t have to live like she has diabetes just because Mark does.
Technological
•Stephanie uses high-speed Internet at work and at home, but doesn’t connect with a mobile device.
•She spends lots of time online for work to help her plan lessons for school and keep her students informed on
their class website.
•She also stays in touch with her family and college friends via email, Twitter, Facebook and has recently started
a website for her and Mark’s wedding.
Needs
•Thanks to Mark’s doctor, Stephanie has access to a lot of information for people with diabetes. She needs information on how to be supportive for Mark
without letting diabetes consume her life.
•Since she and Mark will be living together soon, Stephanie would also like access to some fun new recipes she can try that Mark can enjoy. She only has a few
in her repertoire right now and they’re starting to get a little boring.
•Seeing how diabetes has affected Mark’s life and her own, Stephanie would love to find a creative way to support diabetes research, either through a local
run or coordinating it into their wedding somehow.
Scenario
•Just home from work, Stephanie gets online to make some updates to her wedding website. She also checks her email and scans a newsletter she gets weekly
with recipe ideas. Not seeing any recipes that are diabetes-friendly, she looks at some of her bookmarked recipe websites to find some ideas for what to make
for dinner tonight when Mark comes over.
© Convio, Inc.

28. Garrett – Adult At-Risk
Demographics “I’d like to know some specific warning signs
•42-years-old of diabetes.”
•Middle income
•Works full time
•Single, no kids
Description
•Garrett works full time as a database administrator. He works long hours and doesn’t have time for
exercise or to think about healthy eating.
•Garrett knows he’s overweight and at-risk for diabetes since both of his parents are diabetic.
•He knows that some diabetes symptoms are fatigue, blurred vision and irritability, but because of his work
conditions, he’s been suffering from all of these conditions for the past 5 years.
Technological
•Garrett is always online, whether on his iPhone, workstation or laptop at home.
•He’s working most of the time, but also finds time for personal detours to check email, Facebook and play
online games.
Needs
•Since Garrett knows his risk level is high, he’d like to know about some more specific symptoms to watch for so he can be sure to take care of himself.
•Even though he currently doesn’t exercise or eat healthily, he’d be willing to make a change if he knew about some easy ways to do so that would fit with his
busy, workaholic lifestyle.
•Since he’s already been affected by diabetes with both parents, Garrett would like to know about ways he can support diabetes research and get involved in
the community.
Scenario
•After a phone conversation with his Mom, Garrett is concerned about his risk of getting diabetes. He’s asked his Mom to email him some resources and she
sends him several links about the warning signs to watch for and lifestyle changes to prevent diabetes. Garrett spends some time clicking through his Mom’s
links so he can ease both of their worries.
© Convio, Inc.

29. Greg – Adult with Type 1 Diabetes
Demographics “I’d like some hope that things
•34-years-old will get easier in the future.”
•Upper middle income
•Works full time
•Single, with 1 child
Description
•Greg works full time as a financial analyst. He’s recently divorced and his wife takes care of his 3-year-old son.
•He has had Type 1 diabetes since he was 17 and has learned to care for himself but has constantly suffered from
depression.
•He has also faced some discrimination at work. To avoid this, he often tries to ignore or forget about the disease and
pretend like nothing is wrong, which results in dangerous highs and lows.
•Greg’s ex-wife wanted him to consider anti-depressants or a support group to help him cope with the disease, but
Greg could never find the time.
Technological
•Greg is always on his iPhone, either for work or texting with friends.
•He has a high-speed Internet connection at home and goes online for several hours a day before and after work to
check and update his Facebook page, monitor his stocks and his Fantasy sports teams.
Needs
•Greg needs to know that it’s okay to be depressed and frustrated about diabetes so he’ll be more comfortable expressing himself. He could also benefit from
a private, anonymous venue where he can share his thoughts or even talk to someone knowledgeable via chat.
•Greg needs to learn about simple ways to keep diabetes under control that won’t make him feel like an outsider so he will stop ignoring the disease.
•He would also like to stay up to date about diabetes research and news to give him hope that life with diabetes may get easier. He’d definitely be interested
in supporting any legislation in favor of diabetes research, affordable healthcare, or making life in general easier for diabetics.
Scenario
•On the subway on the way home from work, Greg is reading the news and checking email on his iPhone. He’s signed up to get Google Alerts when diabetes
appears in the news and receives an article about some new research that needs congressional support. Greg clicks to read the full article, then does a Google
search for how he can alert his congressman to vote in favor of this legislation.
© Convio, Inc.

30. Nancy – Older Caregiver
Demographics “Now that David’s getting older, I need to
•64-years-old be prepared to care for him and know
•Upper income what health risks to watch for.”
•Retired
•Married to David, 66, who has Type 2 diabetes
Description
•Nancy and David are retired and David’s had Type 2 diabetes for 12 years.
•David recently retired from his job as an attorney and his long hours didn’t allow him to devote enough
time to losing weight and eating right like Nancy’s been encouraging him to do.
•Nancy has read about long-term health effects of diabetes and is worried that David may be at risk for
heart disease or kidney failure. She wants to know what she can do to help prevent it.
Technological
•Nancy spends a couple of hours online each day, keeping up with her grandkids through email and
reading their family blogs.
•She doesn’t connect with a mobile device and isn’t into social networking.
Needs
•Nancy needs information about what the health risks are for older adults with Type 2 diabetes and some techniques for educating David on what he can do
to prevent these risks.
•She’d like to be prepared to take care of David in any situation and wants to know what specific tasks would be required of her in any scenario.
•Nancy needs to be knowledgeable about the signs and symptoms of all of these health risks and needs to know what kind of medical care David needs now
that he’s getting older too.
Scenario
•After a day of golfing, David comes home and looks exhausted. Nancy gets him to check his blood sugar and they discover it’s extremely high. After calling the
doctor and making an appointment for the next day, Nancy gets online to search for “diabetes complications” so she can be prepared for any news they may
get at the doctor’s office.
© Convio, Inc.

31. Julia – Young Adult with Type 1
Live Message Local
Chat Boards Event
Volunteer Email
Form Register
Googles for Comes to Live
Visit 1: “alcohol and diabetes.org in
diabetes” Food section Chat
Visits site for Browses through Message
Visit 2: info on “Living with
testing supply Diabetes” Boards
costs
“I’m embarrassed to ask
Clicks on an Browses Local
my doctor how much
alcohol I can drink with
Visit 3: email to find info “Community
Event
about an event Events”
diabetes.”
© Convio, Inc.

32. Stephanie – Young Caregiver
Message Action Tour de
Boards Alert Cure
My Food Email
Advisor Register
Googles for Browses My Food
Visit 1: “diabetes through “Food
recipes” and Fitness” Advisor
Visits site to Takes interest in Action
Visit 2: look for more the “How to Help”
recipes section Alert
“I want to be supportive
and help raise awareness Visits site for Learns about a
“Tour de Cure” Tour de
about diabetes and learn all Visit 3: recipes and
I can about the disease.” Message Boards event in her Cure
area
© Convio, Inc.

33. Garrett – Adult At-Risk
My Food Action Step
Advisor Alert Out
Live Email
Chat Register
Clicks on a link Browses through My Food
Visit 1: from his mom “Food and
to “Prevention” Fitness” section Advisor
Visits the site Takes interest Action
Visit 2: for easy in “How you
exercise tips can Help” Alert
“I’d like to know some
specific warning signs of Receives ADA Sees promo
diabetes.” email and visits for a “Step Step
Visit 3: site to read an Out” event in Out
article his area
© Convio, Inc.

34. Greg – Adult with Type 1
Live Action Donate
Chat Alert
Message Email
Boards Register
Receives Browses
Visit 1: Google Alert Action
“Diabetes in
email and clicks the News” Alert
to read article
Visits the site Finds good Message
Visit 2: to check for info in “Living
new news with Diabetes” Boards
“I’d like some hope that Finds great
Visits site again Donate
things will get easier in the advice on
future.”
Visit 3: for the Message
dealing with
Boards
discrimination
© Convio, Inc.

35. Nancy – Older Caregiver
Message Live Chat Donate
Boards
Ask the Email
Expert Register
Browses
Googles Ask the
Visit 1: “diabetes
“Complications”
complications”
and has Expert
questions
Visits the site
Visit 2: to find Explores “Food Message
healthy eating and Fitness” Boards
tips
“Now that David’s getting
older, I need to be prepared
Visits site Finds great
to care for him and know concerned advice in the Donate
what health risks to watch Visit 3: about a health Message
for.” risk Boards
© Convio, Inc.