People have an idea of who they are and what’s important to them. They have self-stories that they tell themselves and other people about who they are, why they do what they do, and why they believe what they believe.
People like to be consistent with their self-stories. So if I feel that I’m someone who’s very technology savvy, I’ll want to stay consistent with that. In fact, it will make me uncomfortable if I come across a situation in which it seems like I’m not tech savvy. Self-stories have a powerful influence on the decisions people make and the actions they take.
As a designer, you can connect with your audience on a deeper level if you know their self-story. For example, let’s say my self-story is that I’m an expert at video equipment. If I come to your website and it seems that the website is for people who are new to video technology, then I may quickly decide that your website is not for me. I will want to stay consistent with my self-story. I’ll filter out anything that doesn’t fit with my self-story.
One of the reasons that designers research and document personas is to understand the self-stories of the target audience and to be able to design to fit those self-stories. If you know who your target audience is, then you can craft your message to speak to that audience. When you craft the message to speak to that target audience, you’re tapping into their self-story.
Let’s say you’re designing an app to encourage people to sign up for a walk/run event to raise money for a charity. How you promote the event, the wording you use, even the wording on the button that people click on to register for the event all depends on what self-story you’re going to tap into. For example, if the target audience’s self-story is, “I’m someone who cares about helping people who need it,” then you’ll want to use messaging about helping people. The button to register might say, “Sign me up to help.”
If the target audiences’ self-story is, “I’m someone who likes to stay fit,” then you’ll want to use messaging about staying fit. The button might say, “I’m ready to run the 5K.” Shaping the wording of text and buttons to fit a self-story makes it more likely that the person reading it will take action.
Takeaways
- Identify the most important self-stories of your target audience so you’ll know what messaging will be influential for them.
- When you want people to take an action, use messaging and wording that matches an active self-story of your target audience.
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