DIGITAL & SOCIAL MEDIA COMMUNICATION - PROJECT 2

Alicia Lee Hui Min (0331719)

Digital & Social Media Communication

Project 2 - Empathy Mapping and Persona

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L E C T U R E  N O T E S

Project Brief

27/09/19 (Week 5)

This week, we were given a brief on the objectives of the project by the client which is Taylor's University.

Objectives
- To highlight our students' personal stories, journeys and experiences to inspire and excite our target audience.
- To promote and feature our Research & Enterprise capabilities, projects and researchers
- To share insights about Malaysia and our culture to international prospective students as well as to showcase the rich experiences they can gain from our Taylorian way of life. 





We were also briefed on our second project, which was to create different persona profiles.


04/10/19 (Week 6)
We visited Growthops this week, where we got to learn more about personas and how to build the profiles.

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I N S T R U C T I O N S




27/09/19 - 11/10/19 (Week 5 - Week 7)
Throughout the weeks we worked on our personas, and placed them in a google slides. We also did some empathy mapping based on our assumptions, as well as a survey to collect data.

For the survey, we brainstormed some questions for both students and parents.

Questions for students:

Demographics

• What country are you from?
• What is your current education level? (High School, Pre-U, Undergraduate, Postgraduate)
• What course are you enrolled in, or interested in enrolling?
• Do you have any financial issues in regards to tuition fees?

Psychographics

• What are your main hobbies/interests ?
• Do you have any interests in joining any clubs and societies? If yes, what are they?
• What do you do on weekends? (Study, go out, chill at home)
• How would you describe your character? (Ambitious, Hardworking, Unmotivated, Introverted, Extroverted) 
• What are the factors that affect your decision making? Opinions from friends/family, Campus life, Uni ranking, Campus facilities, Others)
• As a student, how interested are you in the university / college’s research capabilities? 

Motivations

• What made you decide to enroll in Taylor’s University/College? (Uni ranking, Family, Location, Courses offered, education fairs, others)
• Were you already clear of what course to enroll in?
• What is the next course of action after deciding on the course? (Website, Visiting the campus, Getting opinions from people)
• How concerned are you with your studies? (Not concerned, Concerned, Very concerned) 
• Does reading about student’s experiences increase your interest in enrolling? 
• Have you ever visited the Taylor’s University /College website?
• Which site page do you often visit on the website? (Study, Campus life, Accomodations, Admissions and Aids, Others) 

Questions for parents:

• Which country are you from?
• How is your family’s income? (Low, Middle, High, Prefer not to say)
• Are you concerned about the tuition fees?
• How would you describe your character in terms of parenting? (carefree, overprotective, strict, others)
• Do you take an interest in your child’s future career options?  
• Does the reputation of the university such as ranking affect your decision?
• Are you concerned about the accessibility and amenities of the university/ college?
• What is the first thing you look forward to seeing on the university / college website?
• Do you play a part in your child’s choice of education?
• As a parent, how interested are you in the university / college’s research capabilities? 

Link to survey: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf4V3Yn_og7-zRqGL9atbEaWZA9OEVWW_8npBSz0r0U86FVVw/viewform


18/10/19 (Week 8)
This week, we had to present what we have so far to the clients.

First attempt  of the personas

After receiving feedback from the client, we needed to make some changes to further improve the content.

25/10/19 (Week 9)
We were advised that we could do real life interviews for the empathy maps, as they would give us a more concrete justification for the personas and represent actual consumers.

Updated empathy mapping:

Final outcome of personas:

Final slides

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R E F L E C T I O N

Experience
This project was interesting as I was able to learn about the process of building a persona and how it requires a lot of research and data.

Observation
I observed there are many kinds of persona out there and finding the few that resonates with the brand can be hard especially when we need facts and data to support the persona.

Findings
I found that it is essential to have personas as it helps to direct and create a design that is not only aesthetic but also effective and impactful.