Creating user profiles
For a project in a technical writing class, students were asked to write a proposal for a new, Web-based application to be used by their peers at the university on the school’s Web site. To get a sense of the possible audience for their Web-based app, a group of students worked together to create user profiles. They interviewed other students and came up with two user profiles.
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Group 1
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One potential user group is made up of residential students who are online at least 7 hours a day and who primarily use Facebook to stay connected with friends. These users visit Web sites only to seek information not available through Facebook. They use the college Web site to look up their class schedules and check grades and sometimes to look for news about what’s going on around campus. One student told us: “If there was a way to sync up the college Web site with Facebook, that’d be great!”
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Group 2
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Another potential user group is made up of commuter students, many of whom have transferred from a community college. They live off-campus and are not online as often as those in the first user group. Most work at least part-time and use the Internet primarily for work-related e-mail and projects. This group typically uses the college Web site only when enrolling for classes. One student told us: “I guess I’d need a reason to use the school site more.”
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