MasterCard: The 5 digital personas UX designers need to know

If the holy grail of user experience is one-to-one personalized design for every interaction, then a global study from MasterCard Global Insights that identifies five distinct personality types people adopt when online shows some steps in the right direction.

Nearly 2.5 billion people use the Web every day, and while online they all shed their real-world identities and adopt an online persona as regards sharing their personal information. The Digital Sharing and Trust Project analyzed those digital personas, based on variables such as how they feel, how they manage their personal information and how much value they place on their own data.

The analysis pointed to five distinct online personas: Open Sharers, Simply Interactors, Solely Shoppers, Passive Users and Proactive Protectors. These five types are spread evenly – roughly 20 per cent for each type — throughout the global population, regardless of regional or demographic boundaries.

•        Open Sharers are the most highly digital group and tend to worry less about online risks. They spend a lot of time online and willingly share personal information, but expect deals, access and offers in return.

•        Simply Interactors are among the most dedicated social networkers, but aren’t especially tech-savvy consumers.  Most research products online, but still prefer to shop in person. They are aware of targeted marketing, but worry much about the value of their data.

•        Solely Shoppers use the Internet to find good shopping deals and make purchases. When they do go to stores they use mobile technology to price check in-store for the best deals. But, surprisingly, they have minimal knowledge of target marketing, with barely a third aware social media sites use their personal data to serve ads.

•        Passive Users still aren’t sure about the Internet’s value and spend the least amount of time online of all the personas. They’re not big online shoppers, but are more likely to shop from their mobile device and willing to trade their data for something in return.

•        Proactive Protectors are well aware of targeted marketing. They are unlikely to use social networks and the most guarded with their privacy settings of all the personas – taking steps to protect and control their digital footprint.

The MasterCard study validates the idea that people of all types, in all places are looking for those personalized interactions. More than half in the survey said they value it when companies tailor offers to them based on the information they have shared.

In the rapidly emerging world of big data it will be increasingly easy to understand online personas and target experiences that will be most appealing to them. That’s what the best user experience (UX) designers will need to focus on in 2014.