[Sigia-l] Pharma websites: the importance of a caregiver link onthe homepage

[Sarah A. Rice]

Interesting question and response. I've found that its necessary to do some 
underlying user research to expose which tasks may be unique to a specific 
set of users. For one industry, I found that there was a specific segment 
of users who were new to the industry and needed to basically learn some 
lingo/concepts that most others were familiar with. In that case, a certain 
section of the site was visible to first time users or those new to the 
industry to help bring them up to speed. It was very clear from user 
research that new folks needed the orientation and that experienced folks 
didn't want it, so in that case, it made sense.

I agree that it's important to have some user research to back up whatever 
decision is made, and to focus on what tasks are being accomplished to 
figure out if calling out a specific user segment is warranted.

Sarah


At 04:04 PM 7/26/2005, stephanie hornung wrote:
>This is a question I've come across a few times when dealing with
>customers, since they often think of their information by who is going to
>use it.  Are they customers?  Stakeholders? People in the community?
>Possible customers?  But I've never found this approach by user type to be
>very useful since the visitors to the site don't necessarily put
>themselves in the same categories that you do.  As you said, a drug user
>and a care giver might be looking for the same information -- therefore
>they have the same task.  that's how the info should be organized.  yes,
>you should support the different types of info for each user type, but you
>want to support tasks, not just who they are.
>
>But, since I'm not that familiar with the type of info you're dealing
>with, I'm curious...  is there different information a care giver might
>want as opposed to the person taking the drug?  Or a family member?  Or
>someone thinking of taking a drug?
>
>Good luck!
>Stephanie
>
>Mary Tung said:
> > Hi,
> >
> > I am currently working on a drug website, and I'm wondering if there's
> > any studies / opinions on the importance of having a "information for
> > caregivers" link on the homepage.
> >
> > We decided not to put such a link on that homepage, but we need to
> > make a complying reason why. The reason I gave is that most visitors
> > to the site, whether they are the user or the caregiver, would want to
> > research the product, hence they would be more incline to click on the
> > product information first, and then information for caregivers.
> >
> > Please give me your thoughts on this, and any studies done on the
> > usefulness of information for caregivers.
> >
> > --
> > Mary T.
> >
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