Thinking about the Users/Players...

2 November 2022 - not at 2AM like the earlier post.

Today I woke up with the user/player in mind. Who would use this product? Who would play it? Why? What are their reasons? This line of thinking is helping me figure out my intended audience and those would be invested in it - this helps me make certain design choices and will come in handy when I start working on outreach to users/players for some some early insights into what I should include in-game.

I wanted to focus on both sides of the product, a great lesson learned from the last course in which we really identified the need to include stakeholders in our research also. This first persona represents this category of individual - someone who would be using this game in their curriculum as an an educator. I present to you - Amanda, The Millennial Design Educator (who in retrospect, I think I want to make her older, like when I think of the Board of Directors & key facilitators for organizations I love like Girls Who Code, they are older women, like early 40s)...or perhaps that is another potential proto-persona altogether? The STEM Ambassador? (Just created one after musing about this, find her below Bree).

**As a note - I'm calling these "proto-personas" simply because I've yet to conduct any actual research with real individuals to confirm these assumptions about my intended audience/stakeholders, so they are just placeholders for people in my mind at the moment. I also recognize that both proto-personas are feminine, and I think that is intentional. I have done a lot of volunteer work with Girls Who Code and Girls Make Games, and I think I really want this product to suit this demographic. Obviously, it's not shutting anyone out, but I want to cater to young women/girls with design choices because I want them to be attracted to this type pf learning experience and specific, niche design education.

The second proto-persona is Bree, a Gen Z STEM Student.

The final proto-persona, recently created is Razavi, the wise, multicultural, jet-setting, corporate powerhouse: she slays in the board room and can transition from a meeting to a 5,000 member speaking event with ease (and with her trusty Birkin and Earl Grey in tow). She is the "Senior" - not for her age & experience, but for her executive leadership title & resources to support causes like STEM education and mentorship in young women/girls.