Identifying your audience or end user is vital to the success
of any project, whether it's a television programme, multimedia
product or graphic design. If you do not know who you are targeting
you cannot predict the users' reaction and the end product will
fail to fulfil its aims and objectives.
Different audiences have different wants and needs according
to:
- Age of target group
- Educational background
- Cultural background
- Income
- Interests
- Lifestyles
- Environment
- Equipment requirements
You need to consider how the end product will be used and how
the audience think. In the case of television you need to know
what audiences want to see at a particular time slot in the schedules.
In the case of graphic design you need to understand what message
your design puts across.
Understanding who the real audience is can also mean looking
further than the client. The customer is your client but the audience
or user will be the person receiving the end product and they
might be very different, so it's important to understand how to
reach them.
- The audience for media products is essentially invisible and
it is possible to forget about them when designing and embarking
on the creative process
- Imagine who the audience are - build up profiles of them
and tailor the content effectively
- The final product will be far superior if you ascertain a
better understanding of your target group
- The level of understanding and competence of users is very
important when designing multimedia. It needs to shape the design
of the interface and the infrastructure of the application,
so that both experienced and inexperienced users can benefit.
- It is vital that programmes reach the required number of
viewers, otherwise they will be pulled from the schedule or
will not be re-commissioned
- Ratings/sales determine the success or failure of a product,
so targeting needs to be accurate
Identifying the audience means understanding how to communicate
with them and this can be done through thorough research early
on in the project.
 |
To know the way that we're going to work
and how we're going to approach a project we need to
know who that audience is and what makes them do the
things they do. What makes them feel the way they feel
about certain things? What causes those little triggers
in their minds? How do we reach them? How do we get
them? Information about target audiences is just crucial
and if you don't have that from your client or the ability
to generate that data yourself, it's not worth going
down that road.Grant Campbell |
 |
|
|
