http://tc.eserver.org/dir/Design/Web-Design/Audience-Analysis A listing of the most recently indexed works about Design and Web Design and Audience Analysis in the field of technical communication. en-us Copyright (c) 2005-08 by the EServer. All rights reserved. tclib-editorial@eserver.org (TC Library Editorial Board) webmaster@eserver.org (Geoffrey Sauer) http://tc.eserver.org/images/newlogo.gif http://tc.eserver.org/dir/Design/Web-Design/Audience-Analysis http://tc.eserver.org/33939.html http://tc.eserver.org/33939.html The usability of a website is relative to the audience that it was designed for. A website that is designed well for its primary audience will not necessarily provide a great user experience for everyone that tries to use it. It’s important to identify your target user if you’re going to make a site that works well for the right people. http://tc.eserver.org/33873.html http://tc.eserver.org/33873.html There is a difference between your target audience (who you want to reach) and your user-base (who actually uses your website). At least that’s the mental model I’ve always used when approaching web design. http://tc.eserver.org/33665.html http://tc.eserver.org/33665.html A good starting point for planning the future of your website is to analyze what you already have. To some extent we are doing this all the time. That is how new projects happen. However, a more formal approach helps to better inform your decision-making throughout the web project. There are two ways to better understand your current website: qualitative and quantitative. http://tc.eserver.org/33177.html http://tc.eserver.org/33177.html This paper will discuss the issues associated with the creation of useful, appropriate, and entertaining Web space for teenagers, in the context of the formation of the Internet Public Library (IPL) Teen Division during the fall and winter of 1995. http://tc.eserver.org/32985.html http://tc.eserver.org/32985.html Getting to know your audience is key to designing a successful website. Because your audience may be spread around the world, learning about the users of your site may be quite a challenge. Even if you think you have a pretty good idea of who your audience is, in many cases, there's a lot of information that you won't know--for example, what browsers your users are using, whether or not they are connecting from on or off campus, or what pages they find most useful. http://tc.eserver.org/32987.html http://tc.eserver.org/32987.html Websites are very measurable. However, reams of data can be time consuming and confusing. The knack is to know what is really important to measure. This includes the following: reader actions; reader numbers; most and least popular pages; subscribers; external links; search keywords; page size; broken links and malfunctioning processes. http://tc.eserver.org/32988.html http://tc.eserver.org/32988.html Do you base success on measuring the volume of visitors and page impressions? Such measures may in fact reflect the failure--rather than the success--of your website. http://tc.eserver.org/32989.html http://tc.eserver.org/32989.html Estimating user interest and motivation by just counting page requests from a World Wide Web server log (or "hits") provides a distorted metric of user activity. Some of the reasons why this metric is unreliable are that the path dependent nature of hyperlink usability treats index and navigational aid pages as equal to the goal, because differenes in web browsers can determine how effectively users can percieve content and navigational alternatives, and because the poorly designed structure and content of the documents themselves can inhibit users from finding what they are looking for. This paper proposes that measures of how much time users spend looking at a page are better estimates of user interest than page hits, providing simple human factors principles have been applied. An extended example of how this method might be used to collect and analyze data is also included. The types of decisions that can be made by authors and system administrators based on a time-based metric of user interest is summarized. http://tc.eserver.org/32990.html http://tc.eserver.org/32990.html Web usage statistics, such as those produced by programs such as analog cannot be used to make strong inferences about the number of people who have read a website or webpage. Although those who compile these statistics usually try to make this clear, people still insist on misusing them to make overly strong inferences. Attaching meaning to meaningless numbers is worse than not having the numbers at all. When you lack information, it is best to know that you lack the information. Web statistics may give the user a false sense of knowledge which can be worse than being knowingly ignorant. http://tc.eserver.org/32756.html http://tc.eserver.org/32756.html Discover your site’s findability triumphs and tragedies with traffic analysis systems. http://tc.eserver.org/32648.html http://tc.eserver.org/32648.html Deep down below the layers of interface, CSS, HTML, and XML—down where only the geekiest among us roam—everything comes down to this: it’s all zeroes and ones. On or off. The digital switch Though interaction and conversion becomes a bit more complicated at the point the interface meets the visitor, though there are a few more shades of gray, in the end it comes down to the same thing: yes or no. http://tc.eserver.org/32055.html http://tc.eserver.org/32055.html 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. http://tc.eserver.org/31918.html http://tc.eserver.org/31918.html 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. http://tc.eserver.org/31545.html http://tc.eserver.org/31545.html In the dot.com boom of the 1990s, an electronic goldrush began as companies flocked like new age prospectors seeking to plant their stake in this digital revolution that has today transformed the ways companies communicate and do business around the globe. Because the web is becoming a viable communications channel, it's important that communications professionals understand how the content they're putting up on a web site is delivering to users the kind of value that is realizing a return on their investment. http://tc.eserver.org/31412.html http://tc.eserver.org/31412.html 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." http://tc.eserver.org/30880.html http://tc.eserver.org/30880.html 2008 will see a more serious attempt to get Web analytics to become a part of business analytics. We're still a silo in most companies (data and people). We'll see more collaboration and innovation in helping Web data become a core part of the company data to truly give end-to-end visibility (and maybe the holy grail of multichannel analytics/impact). http://tc.eserver.org/30877.html http://tc.eserver.org/30877.html Tracking web usage with a one dimensional mindset (or in a silo) means that you will end up missing so much of the picture. http://tc.eserver.org/30866.html http://tc.eserver.org/30866.html Data quality on the internet absolutely sucks. And there is nothing you can do about it. At least for now. http://tc.eserver.org/29202.html http://tc.eserver.org/29202.html 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. http://tc.eserver.org/29098.html http://tc.eserver.org/29098.html 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. http://tc.eserver.org/26777.html http://tc.eserver.org/26777.html 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. http://tc.eserver.org/26491.html http://tc.eserver.org/26491.html Last week, Jennifer covered the basics of web statistics and what they should mean for you. Now that you have a fairly good handle on what all these statistics mean, how do you put them to work for you? These concerns are answered in this article. http://tc.eserver.org/26332.html http://tc.eserver.org/26332.html Most server log analysis applications on the market simply present usage information grouped by date with sub-groupings like daily averages and top downloads by file size. While this can be useful, it doesn't begin to touch the range of information available to be gleaned from the logs with a little creativity. http://tc.eserver.org/24292.html http://tc.eserver.org/24292.html 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. http://tc.eserver.org/24268.html http://tc.eserver.org/24268.html In this study, we assessed and restructured Web server log statistics to analyze our customers’ use of a large-scale Internet library. We formulated questions about how these users might be accessing and navigating the information, then developed our own tools to sort and gather relevant statistics from the log files. We discuss specific successful procedures as well as limitations of the methods. Some of our findings may result in further redesign of the Web site. We also identify areas of interest for further research. http://tc.eserver.org/23810.html http://tc.eserver.org/23810.html 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. http://tc.eserver.org/22560.html http://tc.eserver.org/22560.html What’s the difference between simply measuring page hits and views, and actually converting site visits to sales? Smart use of Web analytics. http://tc.eserver.org/22171.html http://tc.eserver.org/22171.html 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. http://tc.eserver.org/21917.html http://tc.eserver.org/21917.html What do people mean when they talk about 'hits,' 'visits,' and 'visitors?' http://tc.eserver.org/21847.html http://tc.eserver.org/21847.html Find out where your visitors come from. http://tc.eserver.org/13535.html http://tc.eserver.org/13535.html 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.