PersonaLYST Developing an Audience Analysis Tool for CDC Using Web Personas

Background: Rich audience data supports the development of effective communications that reach an audience at the right time, with the right message, and move them to behavior change. At the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), learning about an audience is often an arduous, multi-step, and inconsistent process that is reliant on web searches and subject matter expert insights. Likewise, coalescing important quantitative and qualitative data about an audience for the many health and safety topics CDC addresses is fragmented. There is ample evidence in the private sector for the development and use of web personas – a composite of the attributes of a particular audience that are represented by a single, fictional person – to create efficiency in content and design to enhance the consumer experience (Mulder, 2007).

Program background: Who DAT (Demographic Access Tool) is an audience analysis tool that uses web personas to provide information to improve messaging, content, and design across many channels. This tool brings together, in real time, both quantitative and qualitative data from a variety of sources, including: CDC subject matter experts, U.S. Census Bureau, Nielsen Scarborough Market Research, and Visualizing Health. Beyond providing user-friendly audience data, Who DAT is innovative in that it also includes: audience-specific design guidance recommendations, chart and graph options for displaying easy-to-make-sense of health information, and links to topic and audience-specific internal and external resources. This presentation will:

• Demonstrate Who DAT as an easy-to-use, one-stop-shop for audience data
• Highlight improvements made based on user testing
• Provide an example of how a Who DAT persona supported product development and revision
• Identify how CDC can retain its intellectual knowledge using Who DAT
• Share next steps for enhancing Who DAT and making it available outside the agency

Evaluation Methods and Results: Using CDC Innovation Fund money, a team of staff from across CDC developed and tested the Who DAT prototype. The prototype was tested with 7 staff who were not part of the project team and held different positions across the agency. Positions were not limited to those in health and visual communication roles. During testing, users were asked to perform a series of tasks (e.g., search an audience, print a persona). Performance in completing tasks and participant input was used to improve Who DAT navigation and functionality.

Conclusions: User testing revealed the need to provide descriptions on the purpose of each page of the tool as well as identifying the specific data source. Input also prompted: changes to automate search options based on user selections, inclusion of a health literacy level for each persona, adding a help button, and altering button nomenclature. Overall, results were positive and suggested that Who DAT is a useful tool for CDC staff.

Implications for research and/or practice: Who DAT can change the way CDC captures and shares audience information. Further, the tool can support communication efforts to not only reach an audience, but cut through the barrage of information to elicit behavior change to achieve the agency’s mission to keep the public safe and healthy.