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
- Determine whether your audience is inside the university/college/department/unit. Are you making an internet or an intranet? What is the audience's level of familiarity with who you are and what you do?
- Identify the category your target group is in (student, faculty, staff, corporate partners, donors, alums, etc.)
- Identify the level of subject expertise within that group (are you writing for a general or academic audience?)
- Determine the order of their information preferences , or which pieces of information users want first, second, third, and so on (i.e. the dean's office is rarely their first stop)
- Define audience characteristics such as location, gender, age, or lifestyle preferences when they are relevant
- Describe scenarios of use, or those situations or circumstances under which the site may be used --high school student in a counselor's office? on-campus student in a lab? continuing student learning online with lots of distractions? extension audience from their homes?
- Describe your users' range of abilities, and account for vision, hearing, mobility, or cognitive impairments
- 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
- Identify users' level of technical expertise in using a website (their expertise will affect decisions regarding the technical sophistication of the design)
- Determine what hardware and browser software your audience uses
- Identify what monitors and screen resolutions your audience uses
*from IBM's site
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