Graphics Programs Reference
In-Depth Information
site available to a diverse group of people. The site contains a huge amount of infor-
mation about U.S. tax laws and tax preparation. Knowing that the target audience for
the IRS site is broad and that the goal of the site is to dispense information, designers
chose to create a text-based site with very few graphic elements that will be accessible
to the broadest possible group of users. The IRS site is very effective at achieving its
goals. However, this primarily text-based design would not be effective if the main goal
was entertainment because although rich in informational content, the site is not very
entertaining.
Written Communication: Creating a Web Site That Appeals
to the Target Audience
After you have identified a target audience, you can use the general information from the
user profile as a basis to research and make more advanced decisions about user wants,
needs, technical proficiencies, and so on. When used appropriately, the target audience
information is a great tool for focusing a Web site to achieve the site goals. However, be
careful with stereotypes. It is easy to draw general conclusions about the target audience
without backing up those assumptions with research. This can lead to a Web site that
seems targeted to your intended audience, but in practice does not actually appeal to
them. For example, think about a television commercial you've seen that is supposed to
appeal to your gender and/or age group. What was your reaction to a commercial that has
the right look but underestimates your intelligence or misinterprets your styles and habits?
Use the target audience information as a starting point for your research.
Conducting Market Research
Market research is the careful investigation and study of data about the target audience's
preferences for a product or service. It also includes evaluating the products or services
of competitors. The user profi le provides information about the target audience. After
you have created the user profi le, you need to investigate the habits, interests, likes, and
dislikes of that group of people as well as what competitors are doing to attract them.
Advertising and design agencies spend a substantial amount of money subscrib-
ing to services that provide in-depth market analysis of products or services and their
target audiences (such as www.ipsos-asi.com or www.imarketinc.com ), bu t the average
designer has to rely on his or her own research. You will look for information that will
help you to build a Web site tailored to the target audience that NextBest Fest wants to
attract. Technical information—such as the screen size and the speeds of the computer
and Internet connection that the target audience uses—tells you the technical limita-
tions of an effective site. Information on the spending habits of the target audience tells
you the potential profi tability of the Web site. Information on the interests of the target
audience tells you what will appeal to the target audience and what elements you might
include in the site to draw visitors in. Information about the culture and the customs of
the target audience tells you what colors, symbols, fashions, styles, and so on will be
effective in communicating with the target audience. Finally, information about compet-
ing Web sites tells you what the competition believes effectively attracts and communi-
cates with the target audience.
The fastest way to obtain information about the habits, interests, and likes of a tar-
get audience is to use a search engine to locate Web sites with statistics and other data
about the target audience's lifestyle and preferences. A search engine is a Web site
whose primary function is to gather and report the information available on the Web
related to specifi ed keywords or phrases. Gage spent some time online and compiled the
information shown in Figure 2-4.
Three common search
engines are www.google.
com, www.yahoo.com, and
www.bing.com.
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