Personas: Understanding the User

As students begin diving into Phase 1, the UOCD studios become increasingly colorful with the post-it note displays and mapping systems each team hangs around its space. PLANTS! -- after several sessions with persons identified as community gardeners -- began to squeeze all of the notes, reflections and insights we grabbed from each user. The team discussed their thoughts/findings (such as the difference between community farms and gardens) and set off to create people portraits -- a splatter of post-its with notes, insight statements, pictures, etc that we gained for each individual person. Upon creating the portraits, we also had to develop aliases for each to hold their identity confidential. (You may see one or two aliases in this blog when describing separate persons.) These people portraits were then used to create a framework called personas -- fictionalized users that hold (or base their traits off of) characteristics from such portraits as a way to identify different kinds of persons and experiences within the user group of community gardeners.

The team focused on identifying themes and tensions as well as motivations. We found from user visits that people join community gardens for:

1. Connections to the Community
2. Connecting to their Family/Heritage
3. Emotional Healing
4. Financial Savings (Food)
5. Environmentalism/Activism

Also, the team was able to draw out patterns in the "types" of people who join community gardens, which can range from young parents to middle-aged to retirees, as well as distinctions in the roles people hold in community gardens (based on their motivations) -- i.e. volunteer, supervisor, etc. These overarching differences were then expanded upon in increasingly detailed mappings until they became personas (portraits of fictionalized persons made to fit these "kinds" of people). Each personas is equipped with a starmap -- a multi-axis system demonstrating where they stand on values/motivations for community gardening -- and an image picked from the Internet. 

"Amy the Young Parent" is a married mother of a toddler who holds fond memories of her mother bringing her along in the garden. Unfortunately, her mother passed away before her son was old enough to remember and uses her plot in the community garden as a way to allow her and her son to connect to the memory of "Grandma." She and her husband also want their son to have an understanding of where their food comes from (a connection to nature). Their plot is filled with simple and popularized plants (strawberries, sunflowers, peas) and she allows her child to have one of the four squares to plant whatever s/he likes, i.e wants to plant dragonfruit because likes dragons.

"Dave the Hobbyist" is a retiree with older children and is a grandparent. He enjoys gardening as a pastime -- a hobby he began before retiring -- and refers to himself jokingly as a the "Vegetable Fairy" as enjoys leaving food from his garden on his neighbor's doorstep. Many beginning gardeners come to him for advice on what to plant and greatly values the over-the-fence conversations he has with his neighboring gardeners. He's working toward the status of a craftsman: Dave tries to plant something new every year to switch things up. 

"Helen the Volunteer" is an experienced gardener that began well before her retirement (and her divorce). Different from Amy and Dave, Helen does not rent a plot in the community garden but she actively enjoys helping with fundraising and awareness activities. She, herself, hosts a few workshops, gives talks on gardening at the community center, and helps out with children in the elementary/middles school. When her grandson visits or when she has friends over, they work together in her backyard garden. 

"Michael the Money Saver" is a young middle-school teacher and immigrant that financially supports his family overseas. He uses gardening to grow his own food to save money and ensure that he is eating healthily -- instead of paying for marked-up prices in the markets.

"Sarah the Garden Starter" is a part-time professor of Environmental Science and a supervisor for a local community garden. She hates the fundraising activities but greatly enjoys the emphasis on healthy, locally (self-)grown food. She was involved in the Food Justice Movement during college and still organizes dinners for the homeless and food shelters. Sarah brings her students with her to the garden, gives talks at the local/state universities on gardening/farming issues, and administers the community's farmers market.