By: Richard Lowe
One of the first things that you need to decide,
long before you begin your analysis, design and implementation,
is who is your audience? With whom are you trying
to communicate? You are obviously creating a web site
for a reason, and hopefully you intended someone to
view it. In fact, you should define your audience
before you even get into any details about what the
web site is to do - the "to do" will actually
be made much more clear once you understand your audience.
There is the odd circumstance of someone creating
a web site just for himself, but this is a very rare
exception. Usually there is some intention for someone
else to view the material, read the articles or listen
to the sounds.
So who is this group of people who you except to
visit your web site? This is a far more important
question that it appears on the surface, as it will
define and guide you through just about every remaining
phase of your web site implementation. The question
of "who" will determine how you write, which
graphics and sounds you include, what kind of HTML
tags you use and what other technologies are needed.
It is critical to understand that you cannot communicate
to everyone. For example, a web site that is aimed
at five year olds will probably not be very useful
to computer professionals (except, possibly, as an
example of how to do it).
So sit back and think for a minute. It does not matter
what kind of site you envision - you can determine
your audience. Start with the subject material. Let's
say you are creating a website about model railroads.
That's your subject, model railroads. This is very
general, but it will do for now.
Okay, now, are you communicating with beginners?
experienced railroaders? or are you attempting to
explain the subject to someone who does not know anything
about it? Perhaps you want to communicate with all
of these groups - but are you also interested in writing
to the critic of the hobby?
Let's take an intranet that I worked on a number
of years ago. This was intended to explain how my
staff was to perform their various system management
procedures. It would include step-by-step instructions
for each of the tasks that they performed on a day-to-day
basis.
So who is my audience? My own staff members. Let's
define them a little further. They are highly technical,
well trained and know how to do their own jobs. By
defining just this much, the nature of what needs
to be written becomes more clear. Extreme detail is
not necessary, for example. In addition, by knowing
that they are, say, trained in Windows NT, I can specify
that Windows NT commands do not need to be explained.
It can be assumed, because I know my audience, that
they know this information.
Another intranet which I have helped design is intended
for use by store managers. By simple defining that
information, I can determine exactly what information
is needed by this group of people. I can also infer
what data they do not need to have explain in detail
- because they already know it. I can also expand
the audience by saying "store captains and their
direct reports". Now I might have to include
more information, as the direct reports may need additional
explanation.
If possible, it is a great idea to interview or survey
some of your intended audience. I have done this on
several occasions, and it has prevented many errors
which may otherwise have crept into the final product.
Remember your end user may not be the person who is
paying for the project - it is the people with whom
you are trying to communicate.
Things to note as you are defining your audience:
- education - are you aiming for an audience of college
graduates or school children or something in between.
This is necessary to determine how you write your
articles.
- technical training - what kind of training and
technical knowledge do you expect your end users to
have. By knowing this information, you can make assumptions
about their abilities.
- medical conditions - does your intended audience
have any medical conditions that you need to account
for? For example, if you are writing to the blind,
you may need to do extra work to be sure they can
hear your site addition to (or instead of) being able
to see it.
- graphical orientation - is your audience better
communicated with using graphics, text, sound, movies
or a combination of the above? By knowing who they
are, you can tailor your presentation towards them.
For example, if I made a site tailored for my boss,
I might include flowcharts, spreadsheets and diagrams.
For my technical people, text descriptions might be
more than adequate.
Once you know your audience, other things become
obvious. For example, a common question is whether
to code a site for just one browser or all browsers.
When I created an intranet, we coded strictly for
Internet Explorer V5 since everyone in the company
used that browser. By knowing our audience we could
define this early in the project. The same holds true
for things like screen resolution, graphics formats
(jpg, gif and png), load times (the intranet had a
network so it was fast) and so on.
You audience also determines what kind of content
you will include on your site. Thus, if your site
is intended to be read by advanced webmasters, you
probably don't want to include articles on how to
load you site onto a free host. They should already
have this information.
As you can see, by understanding your audience, you
can answer many of the questions that come up during
web site design. In fact, this understanding often
makes the decisions become non-issues - they are obvious.
About The Author
Copyright (C) Richard Lowe Jr. and Claudia Arevalo-Lowe,
1999-2001. Richard Lowe Jr. is the webmaster of Internet
Tips And Secrets. This website includes over 1,000
free articles to improve your internet profits, enjoyment
and knowledge. Web Site Address: http://www.internet-tips.net
Weekly newsletter: http://www.internet-tips.net/joinlist.htm
Daily Tips: mailto:internet-tips@GetResponse.com Claudia
Arevalo-Lowe is the webmistress of Internet Tips And
Secrets and Surviving Asthma. Visit her site at http://survivingasthma.com
