Design Mailing List/OSM.org Personas

"Personas at their best evoke empathy in a process that's easily hijacked by technical imperatives and self-serving, company-focused needs. A design team must work with personas that seem like real people, people that can be conversed with, ideas bounced off of, joked with, related to. Pruitt puts it this way: Personas invoke this powerful human capability and bring it to the design process. Well-designed personas are generative: Once fully engaged with them, you can almost effortlessly project them into new situations. In contrast, [designing for] a scenario covers just what it covers." (http://www.clickz.com/clickz/column/1711846/persona-development-law-averages)

List potential audiences / personas for the OSM.org site redesign. These are stereotypes and so some users will have a combination of interests.

Audience	Description	Goals	Importance to OSM	Notes
Press	They want to know what is newsworthy about OSM and how it fits into their current story.	They probably want to find photos / screenshots suitable for them to re-publish and perhaps a person willing to answer some questions on short notice. They are usually lazy, so press releases and paragraphs they can copy help.
Potential new mappers	They heard about this map they can edit, or map they can fix. Or a friend told them to put their shop on OSM.	They want to know how to get started as a mapper. They want to find tutorials, local users and resources.	Very
Existing mappers	They want nothing to get in the way of what they already know how to do.	They want to know about news and improvements without being overwhelmed by too much news or trivia. They don't want to miss anything important.	Very	The new design should avoid breaking old links.
End user data consumers	They've heard about our awesome Hot, Fresh data and now they want to use it to find the way to Grandma's House, or to their vacation hotel, or to the local OSM user group. May have heard used it through a 3rd party provider, and want to investigate more.	They'll need to know which applications and services make use of OpenStreetMap awesome Hot, Fresh Data since they probably want to use the data immediately rather than learn about mapping. They'll need to find tutorials for loading OSM onto their devices, etc. They may be interested in subject-specific maps (e.g. cyclists, skiers, public transport). example problem	Important	There may be an opportunity to convert these users into mappers as well. While we guide them to quick answers we should inform them that they can fix and improve the map wherever they find deficiencies. They should be guided to the right resources, without irresponsibly consuming them.
Commercial data consumers	They've heard about our awesome Hot, Fresh data and now they want it to build other services with.	They'll need to know how to responsibly consume large amounts of OpenStreetMap data. They are probably interested in their country or region or where ever their clients live, and might plan to use the data for analysis. A one-time up-to-date data download is probably what they're looking for, though the may not know ahead of time that such a thing exists. They might want to know about existing consulting support for commercial interests.		They should be guided to the right resources, without irresponsibly consuming them.
Map designers	They've seen beautiful maps made from OSM data, and want to do the same thing.	They may need to consume the entire planet to do a base map design. They're probably familiar with some basic system and programming skills, but OSM data for them is just a stopover point on the way to the real work of creating a beautiful map and they're in a hurry to get to that part.		They aren't interested in compiling their own software and want something that Just Works.
Donors	They love OSM and want to help with a financial contribution	They'll want to know where the donate button is, and what their donations support.
Developers (F/LOSS)	They want to write and share code that does cool things with OSM's Hot, Fresh Data.	They'll want to know about developer tools and communities. They'll want to know about APIs and usage policies. They'll want to know about existing and abandoned projects similar to theirs.	May help develop *for* OSM.