For this class, we were introduced to principles of writing for the Web, including information design, accessibility, usability and user experience design. We were to develop a persona badge, then create a website/product that caters to that persona.
Renee Blair is an Administrative Assistant for an Executive and has worked in her current
position for nearly eight years. She works remotely from her home office for a company that
operates six days a week. Renee and her husband have two school-aged children who both
participate in extracurricular activities. Once the children are off to school, Renee spends
her day fully immersed in the chaos that is her job. She first looks at both her own email
inbox and the Executive’s, dealing with any emergencies that may have come up and then
progressing from there. She makes sure that the calendar is up to date with appointments,
meetings, and travel arrangements and that there are no conflicts. Online meetings also
take up a good chunk of Renee’s time due to time zone differences with various clients and
customers, the Executive, other administrative assistants, and other company employees.
Her job also includes writing expense reports and tracking budgets as well as employee
training. While proficient in a myriad of computer programs, not everything she needs is
easy to find or use, and because of time zone differences, it is not easy to coordinate
meetings, training, and appointments. Every day is a tangled web of constant changes,
following up with people, and generally being pulled in several different directions at once.
There are days when Renee feels as though she has unwittingly been a part of an unseen
marathon by the end of the workday.
Because her job keeps her so busy, Renee misses many opportunities to be at her kids’
practices, rehearsals, games, and programs. When Renee does manage to get to a game or
program that her children are participating in, that time is interrupted by work calls, emails,
follow-ups and issues that need to be taken care of. She doesn’t get to spend much time
with her extended family or her friends because of her job demands and saves what little
time she can get to be with her husband and children. Her one day off during the week is
usually spent catching up on laundry and other housework, reading, or tending to her
garden. She also likes to browse recipe and food blogs, putting together the family’s meals
for the week.
Renee loves her job, but she wants to get ideas on how to better manage her time both on
and off the clock. She also needs the software and technology she uses for her job to work
faster and more intuitively so that she can be more successful in juggling all the things
each day, whether she is working or off the clock.
See the website I created to solve Renee’s problem here.