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User Analysis
Define
your purpose
The first step in producing an effective website is
to define your purpose. What do you want your site to accomplish? For
instance, assume your company sells exotic fruit. Your initial purpose
may be to attract new customers and enable them to purchase fruit
online. Although you may redefine your purpose after you have received
input from representative users, your statement of purpose will guide
you throughout the process of defining your audience, developing your
strategy, and creating the content of your site.
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:
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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.
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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.
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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?
Gain
input from potential users on the content of your site
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. We have
developed a set of Web survey templates and a tool for automating the
creation of Web surveys. Here are some methods and suggestions for
eliciting input from potential users:
Survey Questionnaire
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Post an email survey questionnaire
to online discussion groups |
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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.) |
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Ask participants what activities
they would like to perform or what information they would like to
find at your site |
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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 |
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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) |
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Offer people incentives, such as a
drawing for a prize, to complete the survey |
Interviews
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Present a site outline or early
proposal to prospective users and solicit comments on coverage and
suggestions for additional content |
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Ask participants to describe in
detail the situation in which they might use the proposed website
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Ask participants what they like
and dislike about the websites of potential competitors and record
their responses |
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Ask participants how they would
expect to be able to accomplish particular tasks |
Task Analysis:
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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
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Ask users to voice what they are
thinking as they accomplish the tasks |
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Observe users accomplishing the
tasks and note the order and techniques they use |
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Discover which tasks are done most
frequently and which are most essential |
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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
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Focus Group:
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Schedule a facilitator with
previous experience coordinating focus groups |
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Obtain a facility with several
computers and a projection screen |
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Recruit representative users,
perhaps from a user group or email discussion group |
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Ask participants to provide
anonymous feedback via a computer station, website or email
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Display a list of topics and/or
sample pages |
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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.
Define
your audience/user profile
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:
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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 |
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Identify the category
your target group is in (such as people in the food industry)
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Identify the level of subject
expertise within that group (such as food professionals, home
connoisseurs, etc.) |
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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) |
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Define audience
characteristics such as profession, location, gender, age, or
lifestyle preferences when they are relevant |
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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)
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Describe your users' range of
abilities, and account for vision, hearing, mobility, or
cognitive impairments |
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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 |
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Identify users' level of
technical expertise in using a website (their expertise will
affect decisions regarding the technical sophistication of the
design) |
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Determine what hardware and
browser software your audience uses |
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Identify what monitors and
screen resolutions your audience uses
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