July 2006 Archives

Define your target audience

As much as you may wish it could, your site will not appeal to everyone. Your best bet is to choose a particular segment of the population and focus your efforts on attracting and engaging these users. Explore the following issues to develop your list of potential users:

1. Determine who is likely to be interested in the content you will provide. For example, if you want to sell exotic fruits through your site, you may list restaurant chefs, immigrants from the fruits' native regions, managers of upscale produce departments, adventurous home cooks, and vegetarians as potential customers. At this initial brainstorming stage, don't try to narrow this list; you want to look at the full range of possible users.
2. Determine which of these user groups you are equipped to serve. In the example above, if you have a small farm with limited production capacity, you may choose to exclude buyers for large produce departments or large restaurants.
3. Of the remaining list, determine which users in your list have access to the web. Also, which are most likely to use the web for your intended purpose?

Input from users on your content will help you create a site that is relevant and engaging. Ask users for feedback on the quality of your ideas, and ask them to contribute ideas. The Web provides a unique opportunity to quickly gather specific information from users from distant locations. Here are some methods and suggestions for eliciting input from potential users:

Survey Questionnaire

• Post an email survey questionnaire to online discussion groups
• Post a survey on the Web and invite readers of discussion groups to respond (A well-done Web survey is more professional in appearance and is easier to use than an email survey.)
• Ask participants what activities they would like to perform or what information they would like to find at your site
• Present a list of information items or potential tasks; ask participants to rate each from 1 to 5 according to how interesting or important each one is
• Ask participants how they initially find websites such as yours or the one you plan to create (this information will help you plan how and where to advertise your site)
• Offer people incentives, such as a drawing for a prize, to complete the survey

Interviews

• Present a site outline or early proposal to prospective users and solicit comments on coverage and suggestions for additional content
• Ask participants to describe in detail the situation in which they might use the proposed website
• Ask participants what they like and dislike about the websites of potential competitors and record their responses
• Ask participants how they would expect to be able to accomplish particular tasks

Task Analysis:

• Ask participants to use a competitor's site, or ask them to perform the tasks that your website will facilitate using whatever means they currently use
• Ask users to voice what they are thinking as they accomplish the tasks
• Observe users accomplishing the tasks and note the order and techniques they use
• Discover which tasks are done most frequently and which are most essential
• Borrow from users' current expectations for how to perform the tasks, but remember that you want to improve upon the tools and methods they currently use

Focus Group:

• Schedule a facilitator with previous experience coordinating focus groups
• Obtain a facility with several computers and a projection screen
• Recruit representative users, perhaps from a user group or email discussion group
• Ask participants to provide anonymous feedback via a computer station, website or email
• Display a list of topics and/or sample pages
• Ask participants to rate their interest in the proposed contents of the site

When you elicit input on the content of your site, you may find that a group in your target audience is not interested in your primary purpose. For instance, you may find that adventurous home cooks are not interested in purchasing fruit online, that they would rather buy fruit at an actual store. You may need to redefine your goal and your target audience based on the results of user feedback.

A clear user/audience profile will help you develop a design strategy that communicates effectively to the people you want your site to reach. Using the input from potential users, follow these steps in order to complete your profile:

• Determine whether your audience is inside the company, in which case you would probably use an intranet, or outside the company, in which case you would use the internet
• Identify the category your target group is in (such as people in the food industry)
• Identify the level of subject expertise within that group (such as food professionals, home connoisseurs, etc.)
• Determine the order of their information preferences, or which pieces of information users want first, second, third, and so on (for example, they may want to first see what fruits are in season, followed by the cost of these fruits)
• Define audience characteristics such as profession, location, gender, age, or lifestyle preferences when they are relevant
• Describe scenarios of use, or those situations or circumstances under which the site may be used (such as a health-food restaurant chef trying to use unusual food items to make the menu more exotic and interesting)
• Describe your users' range of abilities, and account for vision, hearing, mobility, or cognitive impairments
• Describe your users' environments, and note any environmental challenges such as poor lighting or noise, and any technical challenges such as screen size and number of colors
• Identify users' level of technical expertise in using a website (their expertise will affect decisions regarding the technical sophistication of the design)
• Determine what hardware and browser software your audience uses
• Identify what monitors and screen resolutions your audience uses