Design is all about solving problems. #TeamTweak, a DC marketing agency, is quite good at it! 😉  

One of the most important steps in the design process is understanding the problem we’re trying to solve. Part of this involves getting to know our users, and creating user profiles is one way to do that. In this blog post, we’ll take a look at what user profiles are and why they’re important in the creative process.

User profiles are essentially fictional representations of our target users. By creating a user profile, we can better understand the needs and wants of our target audience. User profiles help us to see things from our users’ perspectives and make design decisions that are based on their needs. Creating user profiles is an essential part of the design process because it's how companies determine who to sell their product or service to. It determines who the target audience is and how to speak to them. It determines the tone, language (verbiage) and channels to use to reach them. It's like putting together an imaginary life for a potential customer; like how much they earn. What work do they do, do they have a driver's license or use public transport, how much do they earn, their hobbies, their favorite social media app or newspaper?

Creating user profiles is a fun exercise! We at Tweak, a DC marketing agency, see it as a great opportunity to get creative and think about your business and the target audience in new ways. Attempting any new strategies or work on your brand, without a user profile, means doing a lot of work without a clear path of who you are speaking to.

Let's use an example of Starbucks: this popular American brand was launched in 1971 yet it has stood the test of time and has since expanded worldwide. Their target audience is males and females between the age of 22-60 years. They are typically rather affluent and have extra money to spend. They are typically highly educated and seen as achievers and explorers. Interestingly, in Los Angeles, a location with a popular coffee culture the average age of Starbucks users is 25-34 years - a very specific age range that means the group are students or young professionals, likely Millennials. Therefore, the characteristics of Millennials can also be incorporated here: they want convenience and their biggest commodity is time.

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When you have user profiles, you can go back to them at any point in the creative process and use them to inform your decisions. Whether you’re working on a website design, a social media campaign, or a new product, user profiles will help you understand your users and make sure that your creative work is solving their problems.

Tweak Agency, a DC marketing agency, can help with any or all steps of the creative process! We’re a creative agency based in Door County, Wisconsin, and we specialize in helping businesses reach their target audiences.

We’d be happy to chat with you about your creative needs: pop us a mail at help@tweakagency.com or join our weekly Facebook Live Stream every Tuesday at 11 am (central time). 

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