These slides were submitted as my Audience Engagement final for Fielding Graduate University's Audience Engagement grad school course, MSC-568-18SU1 (part of their Media Psychology program). The slides encompass my real-world thinking in terms of persona development and audience approach strategies as they apply to Adobe's creative community, Behance. While entirely hypothetical in so far as my recommendations here are for the purposes of a grad school assignment, they do address the current environment of Adobe's Behance (at the time of this writing) as I see it and/or have personally experienced. If you like my ideas, please share your comments with me at mayra@ruizmcpherson.com. Last but not least, here were my instructor's comments regarding my slide deck: "As if often the case with the best work, there is little to say. Your final project “Behance: Extended Audience Engagement Recommendations” is excellent. It was comprehensive, aesthetically stimulating, and an effective persuasive communication piece. You have done a great job in laying out the strategy and using the persona is a way that both makes sense and is effective. The personas, in particular, were incredibly well done. Appreciate the drilling down in genre first and this specific person second. Your statistics are also well placed and meaningful. Your entire project is excellent from executive summary through the before/after website shots. Nice clear design and very good navigation to take people to explore the experience of others to the lessons learned from the storyboards."

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EXTENDED AUDIENCE ENGAGEMENT
RECOMMENDATIONS
Mayra Ruiz-McPherson
For Fielding Graduate University | 18/SU Audience Engagement (MSC-568-18SU1) | Final Assignment
mayra@ruizmcpherson.com | 703.798.2619 | July 24, 2018

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Behance is the leading online
platform to showcase &
discover creative work and is
part of the Adobe Family.
Behance’s team of curators
feature new work every day
from top portfolios in the fields
of design, fashion, illustration,
industrial design, architecture,
photography, fine art,
advertising, typography,
motion graphics, sound
design, and many more.
Leading creative companies
find talent on Behance, and
millions of visitors use
Behance to track the latest
and greatest creative talent.
Source: Apple’s App Store
Preview of Behance App

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1.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

4. 1.1 | EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
4
While Adobe’s Behance platform seeks to “remove the barriers between
talent & opportunity (Behance, n.d.)” there are a number of considerations
available for the brand to further refine its existing audience engagement efforts.
Presently, Behance’s current audience engagement approach appears to be centered on the following
three user groups:
● Creatives, design-centric individuals seeking to showcase and distribute their best work;
● Employers, would-be hiring organizations searching for exciting and top creative talent; and
● Schools & Organizations, whose student populations upload design work that reflects the quality
of instruction (and talent available) at their academic institutions.
THE “ “
Behance seems to bucket its Creatives user segment into a generic mass of “Showcasers.” While
“showcasers” is our own label; yet we derive such a term directly from Behance’s own marketing
content and descriptions of its platform. One can clearly see the following welcoming message placed
above the home page fold and under the primary navigation: “Showcase & Discover Creative Work.”

5. 1.2 | EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
5
The word “Showcase” spotlighted on the Behance home page has the primary emphasis (it’s clearly
first in the prominent phrase and comes before “Discover”) and would naturally speak to designers
seeking to showcase and share their works.
The actual word “showcase” is very specific; the verb itself means “display” or “exhibit.” Therefore, only
Creatives who have ample, quality samples of work (and the confidence to showcase their work) would
feel confident enough to exhibit their portfolios openly to the creative world.
Moreover, the positioning language of these Showcasers -- according to Behance -- tends to suffer
from a superiority complex of sorts. For example, Creatives on the platform are described by Behance
as “the greatest creative talent” (or “top talent”) with “the top portfolios” (Behance, n.d.).
THE OF USERS
Such elite-sounding marketing lingo is relevant if Behance seeks to attract and maintain elite-only
Creatives in its community. But if the platform’s mission truly is “TO EMPOWER THE CREATIVE
WORLD TO MAKE IDEAS HAPPEN (Behance, n.d.),” then Behance must recognize that the creative
world also includes the non-elite, everyday designers as well.

6. 1.3 | EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
6
OUR
We propose that Behance UX teams consider our recommendations to tailor platform-specific content and
supporting features towards two brand new user personas that branch out from the existing,
one-size-doesn’t-fit-all Creatives user group.
Specifically, please reference the following for additional supporting documentation:
● SECTION 2: APPROACH | Involves the creation of subgroup breakouts
● SECTION 3: NEW PERSONAS | Introduced as extensions to main Creatives user group
● SECTION 4: STORYBOARDS | Serve as the experience blueprints of a user’s journey
● SECTION 5: EXPERIENCE MAP | Details how new personas find their way to Behance
● SECTION 6: DESIGN MOCKUPS | Cater to new personas’ needs and wants once on Behance
THE
While Behance’s value proposition is strengthened because of its backing by Adobe, new creative communities
rising, it’s important for Behance to continuously differentiate its platform from its contenders. Additionally, the
Behance mission is aspirational but not currently as aligned with the platform’s elitist state of affairs. Our new
personas recommendations help to mitigate the practice of design elitism by repositioning the platform as one
that openly welcomes Creatives from any level of experience.

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2.
APPROACH

8. 2.1 | BEHANCE’S BROAD USER GROUPS
8
AT THIS TIME, Behance caters its platform to three broad user groups:
THE
Design-centric individuals
seeking to showcase and
distribute their best work.
Primarily positioned by
Behance as “top talent” with
having the “best portfolios.”
THE
Behance considers “millions of
visitors who come to discover top
talent” as potential employers.
Behance encourages this group to
“discover” by way of filtered
searches which allow for niched
exploration of talent.
THE
Behance says it powers
creative networks for top
schools and organizations in
the creative world, including
AIGA, The Art Directors
Club (ADC), AdWeek,
LinkedIn, and many more.

9. 2.2 | PROPOSED APPROACH
9
We propose segmenting the primary group of Behance members, the Creatives, into three
subgroups, two of which are new and whose personas are outlined in the following slides.
This sub-group represents the
Behance design elite. These are
the “top talent” with “top
portfolios” and are already
established.
THE
(B1)
The new emergent designer
persona is hardly elite, but aspires
to be dubbed “top designer”
someday. For now, they are still
growing, still learning, but are
much farther along than their
entry-level counterparts.
(B2)
Like the emergent designer
persona, the diamonds in the rough
personas are (very) far from being
considered anything close to “top
talent.” But they are talent just the
same, even if their talent is raw and
in need of refinement.
Existing sub-group
New sub-group
(B) RISING(A) ESTABLISHED

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3.
NEW PERSONAS

11. 3.1 | (B1) EMERGING DESIGNER
11
Yadir Santaliz
Age: 46
Location:: Washington, DC
Occupation: Marketing Consultant
Archetype: The Contender
Professional Situation
While Yadir has many years of design
expertise under her belt, she does not
consider herself an elite or high end
designer. She’s also never held an official
design-related title such as “Art Director”
and the like. Yet she has extensive and
practical design skills and is actively
working on building her portfolio. Currently,
Yadir seeks to not only immerse further into
the creative world but also pivot her
freelancing towards design-centric projects.
Needs & Wants
As part of her career transition goals,
Yadir seeks to join a creative community
for networking, professional
development, and design work
exposure.
Pain Points & Concerns
Yadir has visited Behance and is
considering joining. Despite her design
background, Yadir recognizes she’s
hardly a “top designer” and feels unsure
to join what appears to be a creative
community catering more towards
premium design talent.
To Yadir, Behance means:
SHAREABLE PORTFOLIOS FOR CREATIVES
BEHANCE SHOULD MEAN:
A place where creatives connect, support
& mentor each other.

12. 3.1 | (B2) DIAMOND-IN-THE-CREATIVE-ROUGH
12
James Cole
Age: 27
Location:: Tampa, Florida
Occupation: Aspiring UX Designer
Archetype: The Enlightened Rebel
Professional Situation
James has been studying UX design and
digital marketing for some time. He’s
taken a few courses, completed a handful
of tutorials, and obtained a professional
certificate from an online, accredited
university which was rather costly. Since
then, he’s been busy applying for UX
design entry level jobs but no bites as of
yet. Still, landing a starting UX job is all
he thinks about and wonders how to get
hired for this line of work even though he
doesn’t have much experience or tons of
work samples to upload..
Needs & Wants
James recognizes he needs a portfolio to
attract and impress employers. He also
wants to keep learning more about UX
design while job hunting and building
his portfolio.
Pain Points & Concerns
James learned of the Behance community
while attempting to learn more about
Adobe’s XD prototyping tool via a
Lynda.com tutorial. Once on Behance,
James instantly decided he was nowhere
near ready to join because his impression
was that Behance is mostly for highly
experienced vs junior designers.
To James, Behance means: ELITIST CREATIVES
BEHANCE SHOULD MEAN:
A creative community for all!

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4.
STORYBOARDS

14. 4.1 | STORYBOARDED EXPERIENCE
14

15. 4.2 | STORYBOARDED EXPERIENCE (continued)
15
This outbound email provides
Adobe (Behance’s parent
company) a fantastic,
post-transactional opportunity
to not only build rapport with an
emergent persona AFTER he or
she has signed up with Behance,
but also to cross-pollinate
onboarding messages with
Adobe products. For example,
training and tutorial emails from
Behance can be organized by
experience level, product
categories (such as Adobe
Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator,
etc.) and so on.

16. 4.3 | “LESSONS LEARNED” FROM STORYBOARDS
16
The experiences storyboarded in Slides 14-15 may showcase Yadir’s persona but the visual journey lends itself
equally as well to James’s persona experience. For example, while James may learn of Behance in a different
way than Yadir, and may feel intimidated (rather than curious) upon finding the platform, he may feel less
discomfort if he saw that Behance had a dedicated section for beginners, or for “creative diamonds in the
rough,” like him. Such designated profiles would display a small diamond icon next to a mini palette (instead of
a rising sun) to indicate their raw talent and junior status.
Storyboarding a persona’s experience reveals not just the situation the persona may face but also the persona’s
emotional state during the experience. Storyboards also offer an opportunity to learn what motivates a user to
progress in their journey as well as to discover what opportunities may exist to improve or enhance their
experience (Solis, 2015). Additionally, storyboards pictorially communicate how motivation occurs when a need
is aroused and as well as how the user attempts to satisfy those needs (Jansson-Boyd, 2012).
By visually experiencing the logical progress and emotional impact Yadir and/or James have as they discover
and consider interacting with the Behance platform, the Behance team can draw inspiration for ideas and
further vet those considerations through additional testing of personas.

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5.
EXPERIENCE MAP

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6.
DESIGN MOCKUPS

20. 6.1 | BEHANCE HOME PAGE → BEFORE ALTERATIONS
20
The Behance home page does not actively speak to mid-level or junior designers.

21. 6.1 | BEHANCE HOME PAGE → AFTER ALTERATIONS
21
(1) Top navigation includes new “Emerge” content section, (2) prominent messaging now reinforces a more
inclusive “from All Levels” positioning, (3) and filtered discovery text links under the featured image area
include a new “Professional Level” sort capability, indicating various levels of creative work can be found.

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7.
REFERENCES

23. 7 | REFERENCES
23
Apple App Store (n.d.) App store preview: Behance. Retrieved from
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/behance/id489667151?mt=8.
Behance (n.d.) About Behance. Retrieved from https://www.behance.net/about.
Behance (n.d.) Behance Careers. Retrieved from https://www.behance.net/careers.
Jansson-Boyd, C. (2012). Consumer psychology. Maidenhead: McGraw-Hill Open University Press.
Mulder, S., & Yaar, Z. (2007). The user is always right: A practical guide to creating and using
personas for the web. Berkeley, CA: New Riders.
Solis, B. (2015). X: The experience when business meets design. Hoboken: Wiley.
Hand-crafted, digital Illustrations by Ruiz McPherson Media, LLC.

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8.
ABOUT THESE SLIDES

25. About this slidedeck
These slides were assembled and
written by Media Psychology
graduate student Mayra
Ruiz-McPherson.
Background
Mayra has 20+ years digital marketing,
advertising, creative direction, and
communications experience. As a Sr. Digital
Strategist and marketing consultant. Mayra
works with clients, brands, agencies, and
organizations to transform their digital business
initiatives.
Academic Journey
Mayra is concurrently pursuing an Illustration
MFA through the Academy of Arts University
as well as a second master’s degree in Media
Psychology via Fielding Graduate University.
Mayra
Ruiz-McPherson
Sr. Digital &
Creative
Strategist

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