Wharton Center: Persona

by Kristina Moore
For academic purposes only.

User: Matt Howard, age 23

Background Information: Matt is a senior at Eastern Michigan University, but works part time at a local restaurant. He has a very outgoing personality, and therefore is very social with a large friend group. The majority of his friends go to MSU so he is frequently traveling to East Lansing, but as he comes from a lower income home, has to spend money sparingly and carpools as often as possible. He drives a Geo Tracker, which is quite old and in poor condition, so he prefers not to drive when possible. He lives for music, particularly of the punk/rock/alternative genre, and plays guitar, bass guitar, drums. His favorite band is Taking Back Sunday, but other particular favorites include: Blink 182, Weezer, Senses Fail, Armor for Sleep, Emery, and Finch. He is in an alternative band, as the bass guitar player and singer, with friends from home, they have recorded 2 cds and have played multiple amateur battle of the bands around Michigan. Matt and his friends are frequent concert goers and generally check band websites frequently or sign up to band alert emails, they tend
to go to about around 5 concerts per year.

Goal: To find an appealing conert to go to in a relatively
close time frame.

Information Needed: What concerts are playing, what band(s), Date/Time of concert, how to buy tickets, who will buy tickets, price of tickets, who else will be going, scheduling conflicts (possible school midterm week, upcoming tests/projects, group project meetings, etc.), travelling plans, other bands that may be playing in addition to TBS.

Motivators: TBS is his favorite band and he has only seen them once beofore. Tickets for students are particularly cheap, and with a friend who is an employee, he can get very good seats. His 2 best friends and bandmates are going as well, so he know he will have fun.

Problem Setting: He isn’t signed up for any MSU announcements of concerts and events, so he has to rely on his friends to be informed. He is about an hour away, so in addition to school and work, the chance that the concert plus travelling time will fit perfectly in his schedule is highly unlikely. He may have problems with his car or if he were to not have enough spare money for gas to travel. He may have been inable to buy a student ticket (which is about half of the price) for various reasons.Other friends could be inable to go, therefore he would be inable to go.