Twin City News Personas

Photo of persona
Name	Frank Grimes III
Age/education/health	67; College graduate; Good health after having minor heart attack in 2001
Gender/ family lifecycle stage	Male; Married (Edith) with children ages 38, 35 and 28 – all of whom live separately from Frank & Edith – “New Empty Nests”
Location/housing type	Suburban Minneapolis; Owns 4-bedroom home
Occupation	Former accountant, retired in 2005 with good nest egg
Social class	Upper middle class
Personality	Relaxed but not spontaneous; obsessive planner
Attitudes	Weighs decisions thoughtfully on case-by-case basis; likes a good product; doesn’t need status symbol; serious
Ethnicity/religion	White; Attends church only on holidays; Believes in being a good person, not following every word of Bible
Lifestyle motivations	Principle-oriented; Makes own decisions based on research
Media interests	Quit reading Twin City News when he retired; Still subscribes to Wall Street Journal; Reads Fortune, Sports Illustrated, National Geographic Traveler; Occasionally visits TwinCities.com, CNN.com; Watches evening news (local and national); Watches PGA golf
Type of computer user	Adept; He knows how to surf the Internet, but still has an AOL account; He occasionally types Web address into Yahoo search box
Type of computer equipment	Basic home use; He recently upgraded to a cable modem after years of dial-up
Type of Internet usage	E-mail; News; Travel planning
User status	Ex-user; Used to frequent site when working
Usage rate	Light user; Still checks local news occasionally
Loyalty status	Weak
Usage goals	Wants to be able to plan fun trips to city for events and exhibits; Wants to be able to find out local financial news; Wants to do more than one crossword a day; Wants to read about comings and goings of friends’ children; Wants to read obituaries
Emotional goals	Learning-Wants to gain knowledge about the area in which he lives; Believing-Wants good information/tips about things to do; Entertaining-Wants fun ways to spend his time
Task content	He uses product by himself or with Edith; He uses the product over time in hour-long sessions every other day or so
Accessibility	He has no accessibility issues

Photo of persona
Name	Francine Williams
Age/education/health	57; College graduate; Good health, but has diabetes
Gender/ family lifecycle stage	Female; Married (Henry) with no children – “Close-in Couples”
Location/housing type	Maplewood, Minn.; Owns older 2-bedroom home
Occupation	Retired school teacher; Henry still works as carpenter
Social class	Working class
Personality	Outgoing and enthusiastic; loves to talk to people and joke around
Attitudes	Glass half-full person; consistently gives favorable evaluations
Ethnicity/religion	Black; Attends church every Sunday, helps cook/organize for church functions
Lifestyle motivations	Action-oriented; Has desire to meet people, go places, learn first-hand
Media interests	Reads Twin City News only on Sunday evening; Reads Oprah Magazine; People; Ebony; Watches People’s Court; Oprah; Girlfriends; Everybody Hates Chris
Type of computer user	Acceptable; Knows how to get around but doesn’t surf much
Type of computer equipment	Basic home use; She still uses a dial-up modem and has a slow computer that has been stricken by viruses
Type of Internet usage	Primarily only e-mail
User status	Non-user
Usage rate	Light user
Loyalty status	None
Usage goals	Wants ways to meet new people with similar interests; Wants to find community events she can go to with Henry; Wants community causes to join; Wants to find ways to save money
Emotional goals	Believing-Wants causes/groups she can believe in; Belonging-Wants to be part of those causes/groups
Task content	She uses the product by herself while Henry is at work; She completes use of product in one sitting
Accessibility	She has problems accessing the site because her computer cannot handle the pop-up ads and webcasts; it frequently freezes and she must restart