How Do Students and Practitioners (Actually) Analyze Users?  

This paper reports on some disconnects between best practice teaching principles about user analysis and actual student practice. This research documents the facts of these disconnects and indicates some of their causes. Recommendations for academia and industry are offered. stereotypes to derive a model of audience. To what extent, however, does principle inform practice?

Levine, Barbara J. STC Proceedings (2005). Articles>Education>Audience Analysis

How Much Time Do You Spend in Web 2.0--Interesting Article from the Read/Write Web

Everyone has time to do what they want in Web 2.0; it's just a matter of priorities. I would say that I spend about 5-10 hours a week writing blog posts and producing podcasts. For people who have second jobs or who work 70 hrs a week, dedicating a lot of spare time to Web 2.0 is unlikely. Just curious about your thoughts. Do you feel you spend too much time in Web 2.0 activities? What would you like to be doing with your life instead?

Johnson, Tom H. I'd Rather Be Writing (2008). Articles>Internet>Audience Analysis

How to Know Your Audience  

Lazzaro presents a method for conducting thorough user and audience analyses.

Lazzaro, Heather. Intercom (2001). Articles>Usability>Audience Analysis

The Importance of Audience

Clear writing is essential if you want your message to get across clearly to your audience. But, what makes your writing clear will vary and is ultimately dependent on your target audience. Before you write, know who you are writing for.

WordsWork. Articles>Writing>Audience Analysis>Rhetoric

Indexing for Your Audience: Writing Indexes that Work  

The frazzled reader scans your text, anxiously looking for the key word or phrase that will unravel the mystery of a less-than-helpful graphical user interface. Reaching for coffee that immediately slops onto the keyboard, the reader then resorts to desperate measures and opens your index. A quick scan of the entries confirms the reader's worst fears. The index is no help. The reader gives up, calls the Technical Support Help Desk, and relegates your carefully crafted documentation to the floor next to the recycle bin. The above scenario shows that a usable index is a key documentation component that too often receives little or no thought on the part of the writer.

Bratun, Jane. STC Proceedings (1999). Articles>Indexing>Audience Analysis

Interpretation Within Audience Analysis Theories and the Crusade for True Empiricism

Audience analysis frameworks do not address an important aspect of communication in writer/audience relationships. This element is the humanistic aspect of cognitive processing, which encompasses emotional and cultural aspects. These elements exist on behalf of the writer as well as the reader, which without taking either into account lead us to a less than full understanding of how we can progress in our studies around this issue. We continue to study and theorize about how to improve interactions between writer and audience. Although current theories seem to add considerations important in the audience analysis process and the writer/audience relationship, there remains a need to find ways to address the truly empirical aspects of human interpretation.

Wolfe, Melissa. Orange Journal, The (2001). Articles>Rhetoric>Theory>Audience Analysis

Knowing Your Audience

Learning experiences must be realistic ones. Hands-on practice in learning is critical. Learners need feedback to help them discover where they are in the learning process and to evaluate their progress.

Edwards, Verlane. STC Central Iowa (2002). Articles>Education>Audience Analysis

Log Analysis - A Brief Overview

Log files are text files which can range in size from 1KB to 100MB, depending on the traffic at a given a web site. Webmeisters measure traffic by the number of hits or accesses their site receives in a duration of time.

Rubin, Jeffrey. Florida State University (1996). Articles>Web Design>Audience Analysis>Log Analysis

Making Smart Use of Web Analytics  

What’s the difference between simply measuring page hits and views, and actually converting site visits to sales? Smart use of Web analytics.

Cummings, Joanne. PDFzone (2004). Design>Web Design>Audience Analysis>Log Analysis

Measuring the Influence of Blogs on Consumers, the Media and Corporate Reputation

According to the report "State of the News Media 2005" from the Project for Excellence in Journalism, "more than a third of Americans, some 36 percent, are regular consumers of four or more different kinds of news outlets—network news, local TV, newspapers, cable, radio, the Internet and magazines."

Woods, Julie. Business Communication World (2005). Articles>Web Design>Audience Analysis>Blogging

Multidimensional Audience Analysis for Dynamic Information    

As technical communication gains the technology to deliver dynamic custom documents, the importance of audience analysis increases. As a major factor in supporting dynamic adjustment of document content, the audience analysis must clearly capture the range of user goals and information needs in a flexible manner. Replacing a linear audience analysis model with a multidimensional model provides one method of achieving that flexibility. With a minimum of three separate dimensions to capture topic knowledge, detail required, and user cognitive ability, this model provides the writer a means of connecting content with information requirements and ensuring the dynamic document fits varying audience needs.

Albers, Michael J. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication (2003). Articles>Web Design>Audience Analysis>Personalization

Multimedia Theater: The Roles of Audience in Multimedia  

Creating a multimedia title is much like creating a movie. The multimedia team has to work with many of the same components (sound, animation, graphics, and text) as a movie production team. Many multimedia developers see their work not as a product but as a production. Some developers no longer work in offices but in “studios,” Given this cinematic atmosphere and similarities in drama and multimedia, one can see how literary or dramatic terms can be used to describe reader (audience) roles in multimedia. In multimedia, the audience can become several different roles. This paper discusses these roles and how or if multimedia teams should react to them.

Gibbs, Bruce R. STC Proceedings (1996). Presentations>Multimedia>Audience Analysis

Mystery Fiction and the Technical Communicator: Audience Analysis, Foreshadowing, Research, Showing and Telling  

Mystery fiction and technical writing share certain requirements: audience analysis, foreshadowing, research, showing and telling. Without audience analysis, a mystery novel may startle would-be readers of a bloodless cozy with violence suited to a hard-boiled detective story. A technical document may use a “for dummies” approach when an expert approach is appropriate. Without foreshadowing, a mystery may fail to provide characters with logical precursors to subsequent behaviors. A technical document may fail to introduce basic terms before sophisticated ones. Both types of writing benefit from accurate research and from showing and telling.

Jennings, Ann S. STC Proceedings (1998). Articles>TC>Audience Analysis

A New Look at Audience Analysis  

Designed to stimulate the thinking and practice of persons who already do Audience Analysis as a part of their work this hands-on Workshop will offer some new wrinkles for reimagining the audiences toward which we direct our technical communications. It proposes not a whole new scheme, but some new combination of ideas involving heuristics based on the work of Janice Lauer and Rebecca Burnett. We shall use scenarios and fact sheets, small group sessions wing differentiated tasks, and dialogues between groups to try to arrive at a fresh look at audience analysis.

Sutherland, Alec and Monica Weis. STC Proceedings (1995). Articles>Rhetoric>Audience Analysis

Organizational Size, Multiple Audiences, and Web Site Design    

The designer's perspective sometimes focuses on the designer's tastes and ignores the needs and preferences of the user. Nielsen (1999) recognized the insufficiency of the designer's perspective and stressed the need to focus on usability in Web page design. The usability principle calls for the designer to prioritize the user's need over the designer's intuition and worldview. The need to bridge the gap between the designer's perspective and the user's perspective has been extensively addressed in the computer software system design literature.

Lin, Canchu. Technical Communication Online (2002). Design>Web Design>Audience Analysis

Prescriptive Audience Analysis: Moving Beyond the Purely Descriptive

Editing and writing both require an understanding of our audience, because without that knowledge, we can't shape our words to help them easily grasp difficult concepts. To understand our audience, we do what all writers and editors do, whether consciously or unconsciously: We create an image of our audience that guides our choice of words, images, and metaphors. This image is variously known as a 'stereotype' (e.g., Schriver 1997) or a 'persona' (e.g., Graham 2001). Keeping that image in mind as we work helps us satisfy the reader's needs, but if we're not careful, it can also cause us to waste valuable time collecting information that doesn't really help us communicate.

Hart, Geoffrey J.S. TECHWR-L (2005). Articles>Usability>Audience Analysis>Tropes

Ready, Aim, Write: The Value of Identifying Your Target Reader

One of the most important first steps when preparing to write a white paper is to determine who will be reading the document. This article will help you perform this critical step in the needs assessment process.

Stelzner, Michael A. WhitePaperSource (2006). Articles>Writing>Audience Analysis>White Papers

References Available Upon Request  

Find out where your visitors come from.

Fleishman, Glenn. Adobe Magazine (1999). Design>Web Design>Audience Analysis>Log Analysis

Remembering Your Reader in Web Design

Technology advancements have allowed for many improvements and enhancements in web design. Drastic changes have been made concerning programming, development, and available features. From flash animations, to blog pages, forums, and live chat, website designers have a multitude of design elements that can be added to their websites. Multimedia products such as audio, video, and podcasts are some of the other advancements in web design. One thing that has not changed, however, is the website readers. Successful website developers know and understand this concept, and apply it to every website that they design.

Haig, Anders. ReEncoded (2008). Articles>Web Design>Rhetoric>Audience Analysis

Selling Your Brand by Using Your Web Site as a Customer Research Tool

With companies moving business online, the Internet has become a source of profit for them. We all know how this works. You establish an online presence, sell your brand well—and you make money. Let’s rewind. We are selling our brands online, but doing it well is the challenge. To do it well, keep the following in mind: customer research is an important factor in generating business revenues, so it must be done right—that is, at the right place and at the right time; the online medium should not be the only way of gathering customer information; recognizing emerging trends—behavioral, demographic and emotional—helps companies move forward strategically.

Kirmani, Afshan. UXmatters (2008). Articles>Web Design>Marketing>Audience Analysis

Serving Information Workers and Knowledge Workers  

Information and knowledge workers are important users of technical communication products, but they do their work in different ways. Information work (i-work) follows a procedure to achieve a desired and prescribed result. Knowledge work (k-work) is decision making, the process of using one's skills and experiences to solve a problem. Information and knowledge are not always differentiated properly when organizations provide training and documentation for their workers, and information and knowledge tasks are not neatly separated in most business processes. Information and knowledge tasks can be separated and identified, allowing for the development of proper teaching and support materials.

Tillmans, Michael C. STC Proceedings (2005). Articles>Documentation>Audience Analysis

Single-Source from the Reader's Point of View

Documentation written for single-sourcing (topic based, like that found in DITA) has great potential for efficiency. Writing once and publishing in many publications (Developer Guides, User Guides, etc.) and many formats (pdf, html, HTMLHelp, etc.) turns into cost and time savings. However, these efficiencies can cause inefficiencies for the users. Many online help users complain they cannot find the information they need while using the search function. Readers are more likely to comprehend texts with a classical book architecture, an architecture which is often sacrificed in single sourced documents and online Help files. When texts are cohesive, readers are more likely to consider information to be clear, well organized and easy to follow. For comprehensibility, it is essential to have a manual review, even when composing is partially automated.

Mulvihill, Teresa. LiveTechDocs (2008). Articles>Content Management>Single Sourcing>Audience Analysis

Some Stategies for Addressing the Changing Audience  

'Know your user!' is the first thing every aspiring technical communicator learns. Everyone agrees that understanding the technical skills and needs of your audience is essential to producing high quality technical documentation. However, knowing exactly who your audience is and what they need from documentation is no longer an easy task. The increase in international markets, multiculturalism in America, end the number of people using software products for the first time all mean that the audience you knew so well a short time ago may not be the same audience using your documentation today. As technical communicators, we can no longer assume that our users' language and technical skills remain stable over a long period of time. How to assess and meet the needs of a changing audience is a challenge many technical communicators face today.

Lopes, Jeff and Kimberly E. Willis. STC Proceedings (1993). Articles>Documentation>Audience Analysis>Usability

Sometimes You Really Can be Too Helpful

It's important to establish and maintain relationships with your audience: it gives you a handle on their changing needs so you can continue to meet those needs.

Hart, Geoffrey J.S. Geoff-Hart.com (2000). Articles>Documentation>Audience Analysis>Help

Tactics for Building Images of Audience in Organizational Contexts: An Ethnographic Study of Technical Communicators    

Discourse theories frequently emphasize the importance of understanding audience but seldom delve into how writers form conceptions of their audiences, especially in organizations. This study examines computer documentation writers' tactics for conceiving of their audiences. Based on two ethnographic case studies and insights from activity theory, the author describes and evaluates technical communicators' tactics for understanding audiences, constrained and supported by their organizations. She discusses the advantages and limitations of each tactic, looking at how each tactic might answer questions about audience. This research should be useful to technical communication educators as they expand students' options for audience research in nonacademic settings. In addition, the findings of this study can enhance theories about the ways writers create images of their audiences.

Rush Hovde, Marjorie. Journal of Business and Technical Communication (2000). Articles>Rhetoric>Audience Analysis