Liberation Through Audience Limitations - Page 3

If you don't know who you are talking to, will your audience know what you're saying through your Web site? Probably not. Your audience will probably be as lost and confused on the site when they reach your home page (see Figure 1.7) as you are. Without thinking about the audience for your Web site, the people who do show up to see your Web site won't be catered to effectively like they would be at a site that was built from the ground up to help them.

Figure 1.7
Starting a Web project without defining your audience leads to a Web site without a beneficial purpose.

One of the great things about taking an audience-oriented design approach is that you are actually reducing design possibilities, or the options that would be fruitless. You don't take unneeded steps. Instead, through research and strategic thinking, you can determine what the best ways are of not wasting time, money, and other resources at your disposal (see Figure 1.8).

Figure 1.8
By boxing your audience, you can put them under observation and testing to determine their likes, dislikes, and what they want from a site like the one you are going to build.

It is also important for you to know who isn't part of your audience. Sometimes, the best way to determine the best solution is to eliminate what obviously won't work for your Web site. Eliminating different groups of audiences allows you to narrow in on your audience (see Figure 1.9).

Figure 1.9
Getting rid of audiences that don't serve your mission brings you a step closer to bringing your message to the right audience.

With an audience-centered approach, you won't spend time trying to reach millions of Web surfers. Instead, you'll be able to focus on the people who matter to your project being a success. Just because a million people could potentially visit your Web site, the likelihood of your ISP's servers melting down from too many users won't happen without careful planning.

Of course, serving a specific audience at the beginning of the project does not imply that you will be serving the same audience at the end of the project or during the maintenance and content updates. During the development phases of a Web site, a client or a project manager will add his opinions about how to improve the Web site. Take these opinions with a grain of salt. These opinions are coming from one person's perspective of Web surfing and what he thinks is "cool." By adding only this client's/manager's philosophy of approaching the functionality and design, chances are that you are cheating the audience instead of making the site a quality environment.

Of course, blindly ignoring the person who is paying for the Web site (and therefore you) isn't a good thing either. If possible, you need to reach a consensus about the best way to approach the project. Remember: You've researched the best way to build the client's Web site so far, and you can back up your claims. Ask the client to do the same for any change or modification that doesn't seem to help. See what the client has to say and reach compromises.

Customer Types: Toma-to or Tomäto - Page 2
Designing CSS Web Pages
Gathering Content - Page 4