Searching the internet for basic information about types of wines, I entered “wine 101″ into Google and clicked on the first result: wine.com. I had never visited this site and I was happy to see that they seemed to have some interesting information. Not five seconds later, an un-closeable pop-up emerges to ask me about shipping preferences, giving me choices within the US only.

The designers of the wine.com site made at least three assumptions about me that were incorrect and led to my frustrating experience and subsequent departure:

• I come to wine.com to buy something (I came to get information about wine)
• I live in the United States (I am in Montréal, Canada)
• I arrive to the “Wine 101″ section from somewhere else within the site (I found the link from Google and arrived directly on the “Wine 101″ page, not their home page)

The basis for these assumptions is probably valid; it may well be that wine.com cannot sell to anyone outside the US, and that the majority of their visitors do come to purchase wine. However, that is no reason to turn away other visitors simply because they don’t fit their target clientele’s profile.

By making it easier for everyone to access the information they want, wine.com would ensure that they offer a positive user experience (if not necessarily a “shopping experience”) and make a good first impression, no matter who visits the site.

Using personas during the design of their site could have prevented this incident. A persona is a fictional person created to find out how different kinds of visitors would use a website. A very simple example could be something like this:

Name: Jane Smith
Age: 30-something
Profession: Web Designer
Location: Montéal, Canada

Jane is a web professional and knows how to use the internet. She usually finds what she needs using Google. She likes to give wine as gifts and enjoys learning about different kinds of wines and food. She buys wine at liquor stores, but likes to do research ahead of time to know what she wants.

When designing a site, create a few personas that represent different types of potential visitors. Even if you only cater to a local market, include some “people” from other areas and backgrounds; the web is a global tool, you never know who may be looking in! There is no down side to making your site accessible to all; it only makes you look like you care.

For more information on personas:
An introduction to personas and how to create them (Step Two Designs)