Actively Learning About Readers: Audience Modelling in Business Writing    

The advantages of peer feedback in business writing classes are clear. Students receive more appraisals of their writing than any single lecturer can ever realistically deliver. Also, the feedback comes from different perspectives and sometimes carries extra credibility coming from fellow students. Students gain from giving one another feedback as well. It is certainly learning by doing. Critiquing the work of colleagues raises awareness of the many ways to approach a given task and demands skills of analysis and attention to detail. Delivering feedback also requires tact and the ability to look for positives to commend as well as areas to improve. Reviewing written documents is a skill that students will certainly use in their future work lives. However, many of us have experienced problems with peer reviewing. Students hesitate to criticise their friends and prefer praising in a general way rather than suggesting improvements, which requires confidence.

Holst-Larkin, Jane. Business Communication Quarterly (2008). Articles>Education>Business Communication>Audience Analysis

Analyzing Web-Based Help Usage Data to Improve Products  

This paper describes how user assistance can streamline deliverables and improve product design by analyzing usage patterns from server-based content. We can then base decisions about how to improve deliverables on a thorough understanding of how customers use help content to find information and solve problems. This approach enables user assistance to add more value to both our companies and our customers by creating a three-way dialog between user assistance, the customer, and the product team. It also broadens the definition of assistance to include helping to design products that people can use without the need for instructions.

Raiken, Nancy. STC Proceedings (2005). Articles>Documentation>Audience Analysis>Log Analysis

Audience Analysis  

A PDF document for teachers to revise and adapt for their students. The worksheet helps writers to make audience-based decisions about content, organization, formatting, style, usage, and mechanics.

Zuidema, Leah A. Michigan State University (2003). Presentations>Rhetoric>Audience Analysis

Audience Analysis and Information Design: Creating a Needs Assessment Documentation Strategy  

A user needs assessment developed from extensive audience analysis can be used to develop a documentation strategy that effectively meets user needs. This paper provides an overview of the steps required to identify and analyze the various audiences critical to enterprise software documentation and create a needsassessment- based strategy.

Yeats, Dave and Paula Kozlowski. STC Proceedings (2003). Articles>User Centered Design>Audience Analysis

Audience Analysis of a Usenet Newsgroup  

For this exercise, you will be working with and expanding on the concepts of audience discussed in the textbook by completing these preliminary tasks: · Selecting a Usenet newsgroup that discusses issues in your field · Writing and posting a relevant question to the newsgroup · Collecting responses to your question After completing these tasks, you will write a report in which you evaluate your success in adjusting your communication to your chosen audience. In the process of completing this assignment, you will gain a more sophisticated understanding of audience and get better acquainted with the kinds of interactions with professionals and students that are possible on the Internet.

Burnett, Rebecca E. Thomson (2001). Academic>Course Materials>Audience Analysis>Online

Audience Analysis the Easy Way  

Audience analysis is more often a process of guesswork than of an in-depth inquiry into the mind and activities of the user. In fact, it is pretty easy to analyze your audience without having to do any research. Essentially, there are only two things that technical writers need ask themselves during the audience-analysis phase: what does the user know about the thing I am writing about? And what does the user want to know about the thing I am writing about?

Docsymmetry (2003). Articles>Rhetoric>Audience Analysis

Audience Analysis: Can You Get There From Here?  

As writers we face many pitfalls. One of the most challenging is trying to meet multiple audience needs -- once we identify the audience. Rarely do we have the luxury of knowing the members of our audience personally and, even if we did, bringing them to consensus would consume all our time. As writers we often decide what the readers in our audience need before the readers have ever seen our material. The analogy of map readers can help us focus on our clients' needs.

Blagg, Lynn and Carolyn K. Johnson. STC Proceedings (1994). Articles>Rhetoric>Audience Analysis

Audience Analysis: Looking Beyond the Superficial  

In performing an audience analysis, it’s easy to focus on simple, obvious issues such as the differences between men and women. In fact, men and women have more similarities than differences when it comes to most of the things that technical communicators document. A discussion of some seemingly obvious differences between men and women illustrates how to look beyond superficial issues to find the truly important differences.

Hart, Geoffrey J.S. STC Proceedings (2001). Articles>Usability>Audience Analysis

Audience and Document Analysis

Before you begin editing a document, try to find out as much as you can about the audience for the document and purpose of the document.

Hollis Weber, Jean. Technical Editors Eyrie (2001). Articles>Writing>Audience Analysis>Rhetoric

Audience Matters    

By incorporating usability techniques--more commonly used in product design--writers can better understand their audiences and the ways they use (or have problems using) the content. Read on for tips on how to incorporate usability techniques into your work.

Stott, Susan. Intercom (2008). Articles>Writing>Usability>Audience Analysis

Catching the Technology Wave: A Historical Analysis of the Technological Context of Technical Communication

We seem to be constantly chasing the latest and greatest technology, eternally one step behind. Our continual struggle to establish the field of technical communication yet assert dominance over new technological domains seem to be in direct conflict with each other. How can we possibly establish our dominance over a moving target? Instead of trying to peer into future, perhaps we need to look toward the past.

Davis, Toni. Orange Journal, The (2004). Articles>Technology>Audience Analysis

Changing the Way the Profession Communicates: A Workshop for Prospective Journal Peer Reviewers  

More than 90% of Technical Communication readers are informed practitioners--writers, editors, illustrators, designers, trainers, and project managers. About 10% are teachers and students. They come from diverse backgrounds as well as from technical communication programs.

Hayhoe, George F. STC Orange County (1998). Articles>Rhetoric>Audience Analysis>Surveys

Characterizing Audience for Informational Web Site Design    

Presents a sample of audience analysis results and discusses how they were used to make design decisions. Reflects on the strategy, the insights gained from the data, and the impact of the results on the subject Web site.

Turns, Jennifer and Tracey S. Wagner. Technical Communication Online (2004). Articles>Web Design>Audience Analysis

Cómo Leen Los Usuarios en la Web

Los usuarios en la Web no leen, o por lo menos no lo hacen de la misma forma secuencial que cuando tienen entre manos un periódico, un libro, un artículo o un cómic. Los usuarios tienen necesidades y objetivos, metas que alcanzar, y saben que la forma de conseguir dichas metas no suele ser dedicando largos ratos a cada nodo web que visitan, leyendo de principio a fin sus contenidos y enlaces. El usuario, en una página, hará clic sobre el primer enlace que crea puede llevarle a lo que busca, necesita o pudiera interesar. Eso quiere decir que muchos de los contenidos y enlaces de ese nodo ni siquiera serán vistos por el usuario.

Hassan Montero, Yusef. Nosolousabilidad.com (2002). (Spanish) Articles>Usability>Audience Analysis

Competitive Analysis: Understanding the Market Context

Effective web design, from the simplest brochure website to the most complex web application, needs to involve an understanding of context. While user-centered design focuses on user needs/tasks, and information architecture focuses on content, these two aspects alone offer an incomplete picture. What is missing is the context: the environment in which the website or web application is used as well as the market in which it exists.

Withrow, Jason. Boxes and Arrows (2006). Articles>Web Design>Audience Analysis>Rhetoric

Configure Web Logs in Apache

Traffic statistics have a huge impact on a Website's success, and Apache provides one of the most powerful and flexible logging features available today. Blane explains the nitty-gritty of configuring Apache Weblogs in this handy how-to.

Warrene, Blane. SitePoint (2004). Design>Web Design>Audience Analysis>Log Analysis

The Culture of Distance Education: Implementing an Online Graduate Level Course in Audience Analysis      

This essay details the experience of designing, implementing, and evaluating an online course in audience analysis at the graduate level. Through a discussion of the culture of this online course, I describe how the educational culture of the Land Grant Mission flowed into our efforts to create a quality learning experience, and how the Web modules and asynchronous (listserv) and synchronous (MOO) conversations influenced communication and learning.

Duin, Ann Hill. Technical Communication Quarterly (1998). Articles>Education>Audience Analysis>Online

"Curb Cuts" on the Information Highway: Older Adults and the Internet    

With demographic and social trends in mind, technical communicators should be examining the online communication needs of elderly people who may share certain characteristics with other Internet users, particularly the disabled community. Although education, universal design, and accessibility initiatives help us address many of the developmental and cultural barriers elderly Internet users face, this article examines some current offerings, analyzing the growing elderly audience to better incorporate usability into Web design.

O'Hara, Karen. Technical Communication Quarterly (2004). Design>Web Design>Audience Analysis>Elderly

Data Quality Sucks, Let's Just Get Over It

Data quality on the internet absolutely sucks. And there is nothing you can do about it. At least for now.

Kaushik, Avinash. Occam's Razor (2006). Articles>Web Design>Audience Analysis>Log Analysis

Design Success Through User Research and Iterative Testing  

Intuit was faced with serious usability problems causing high support call volumes for one of its major payroll software products. Improving training and online help did not solve these usability problems. Results from research techniques such as usability studies and customer site visits supported a software interface redesign that raised performance as much as from 13% to 89% success for customers' most critical tasks (for novice users with no training). This paper describes how several different strategies combined to yield design success: using multiple data gathering techniques to converge on an understanding of customers' problems and details of software redesign, iteratively prototyping and testing until performance reached desired levels, and using diverse sources for design suggestions. Applicability of these strategies to other projects will be emphasized.

Petrick, M. Susan and Mark Keavney. STC Proceedings (2005). Design>User Centered Design>Audience Analysis

Engagement: Should We Care?

These days, the idea of customer engagement is almost as hot as Web 2.0--and almost as controversial. As busy UX professionals, should we invest our time and energy in caring about engagement, or is it just another buzzword? I think we do need to understand customer engagement, so that, at a minimum, we can respond intelligently to questions about it from marketers or executives. We might even glean some useful insights from thinking about engagement. This column aims to cut through the hype and reveal the potential value of engagement.

Jones, Colleen. UXmatters (2008). Articles>User Experience>User Centered Design>Audience Analysis

Field Trials: Trials and Tribulations of a Field Visit

I dutifully and eagerly prepared myself for the visit. I read books and STC articles on field visits and questionnaires. I was on a quest, and dangerously close to realizing a dream. At last, I would be able to define my audience, and gage the usability of the online help and hard copy manual. I would finally get the answers to my questions directly from a group of users.

Gunn, Robi. Usability Interface (1998). Articles>Usability>Audience Analysis

From Formalism to Social Significance in Communication Design  

At the heart of design is the goal of communication, and instilling a belief in the audience about the past, present, or future. Historically, graphic and advertising design, fields within communication design, have oriented around clients and deliverables, and have maintained a focus on translating written or spoken messages into visual communication. Designers of visual communications—graphic design and the related areas of advertising: brand and identities, Web sites, and posters and photomontages—have largely relied on the designer’s intuition and training to create appropriate visual messages.

Forlizzi, Jodi and Cherie Lebbon. Design Issues (2002). Design>User Centered Design>Audience Analysis

Get a Clue: Understanding the Who in Audience Analysis  

This paper describes an interactive game that technical communicators in a department or project group can play to share each other's experience and discuss how to expand audience analysis with effective user data.

Clark, Robin. STC Proceedings (2005). Articles>Rhetoric>Audience Analysis

Getting to Know Your Audience Through Customer Visits  

Getting to know your audience is not an easy task. Telephone interviews and written surveys are helpful, but the most effective way to really understand customer needs is through face-to-face contact. A successful program of customer visits requires thoughtful planning and organization. You need to identify clear objectives, develop a discussion guide, select the appropriate customers to visit, conduct the interviews, and determine how to analyze and communicate the results. You’ll also want to develop an action plan to follow-up on what you learn. We visited 12 customers in 6 weeks. Here is our story. . .

Kagan, Lisa. STC Proceedings (1996). Articles>User Centered Design>Audience Analysis