Portfolio Marketing/Communication
xsonas.
Project information
Project: xsonas
Client: Internal project
Industry: Marketing/Communication
Company: Plan.net Pulse
Location: Munich
Date: August - October 2021
From my experience on several projects within my company, I realised that when we were using Personas we didn't have any pre-built templates. Each one did the representation of personas as they could: there were teams that prepared Excel files, others delivered PowerPoints and, in the best case, the outcome was a PDF file.
That is only regarding the format, but when we went to the content, things were even worse. The results delivered were totally disparate and there was no way to find a certain consistency.
From there, I set myself a personal challenge: to be able to present Personas in a consistent way, that would be easy to share but at the same time secure and that would also be easy to print, since in many workshops we needed to print personas in large format. If it could also be viewed with quality on mobile devices, then it would be perfect.
This is how xsonas was born.
Based on the premises described above, I began to see that the product had to go through a web app. A system that would allow homogenizing data and displaying it in a consistent way but that would also allow a minimum of flexibility to be able to adapt, for example, customer branding.
From several personas created for different projects, I tried to create a basic structure that would allow hosting such data. With this I transported a basic Persona to a web interface.
The product evolved through several iterations until it reached its current state: implementation of Customer Journeys.
The next thing was to see how I could transform the existing data into a container that would allow me to be flexible enough in the future. That way I transformed the existing information into a JSON object. From that point on I had information contained in JSON and a PHP display that allowed me the flexibility to add new content.
That was the first MVP: JSON data displayed using PHP.
After presenting the first MVP to Plan.net Pulse management, the project was really well received and I continued its iteration. The next step was to create an administration interface that would allow me to modify the JSON objects in a totally visual way...
I had just created a Flat File CMS. Very similar, by the way, to the one you are seeing right now. The interface was capable of creating and managing data blocks, rich text blocks using CKEditor and even the ability to select icons using an Icon-Picker.
From there, the product evolved through several iterations until it reached its current state: implementation of Customer Journeys. It was logical. The system has reached the point of being able to generate customer journeys based on personas. This is extremely interesting in product definition phases, since in this way we can go from the qualitative information of our user to the generation of specific solutions based on the needs and opportunities observed in personas.
You can see a demo of how xsonas works on its website. If you are interested in using xsonas in your projects or just want more information, you can contact Helen Birke.
MY SPECIFIC TASKS IN THE PROJECT
- Conception of the structure.
- Taxonomy of all content
- UI interface design
- Front-end programming of the app
- Back-End programming via flat file system
- xsonas brand design
