@keljar and Andrew Fort review this key element in successful website design - understanding your audience.

1. Strategic Web Design:
Analyze Your Audience
Andrew Fort, Design Principal
Kelley Jarrett, Market Manager

2. SYMPATHY WILL EARN
YOU ACCEPTANCE.
EMPATHY WILL
ENGAGE AND INSPIRE.

3. Do You Need to Analyze Your Audience?
WHO ARE YOU TRYING TO ENGAGE?
WHAT DOES YOUR AUDIENCE CARE ABOUT?
WHAT INFORMATION DO THEY LOOK FOR FIRST?
HOW DO THEY ACCESS
INFORMATION?
WHO DO YOU RELY ON
MOST TO FULFILL YOUR
MISSION?

4. The Process
IDENTIFY YOUR AUDIENCE
TEST YOUR CURRENT SITE
CREATE PERSONAS AND OUTLINE TASKS
FIND COMMONALITIES
OUTLINE YOUR TOP THREE GOALS
PRIORITIZE MESSAGING – COMMON AUDIENCE GOALS + YOUR NEEDS

5. Identify Your Audience
LIST YOUR AUDIENCE GROUPS
DETERMINE HIERARCHY OF IMPORTANCE
– Database reporting – who means the most?
– Analytics – who accesses your site the most?
– Who do you need to engage?
CHOOSE A REPRESENTATIVE FROM EACH GROUP FOR TESTING
– represent the group
– be ready and willing to share information

6. Identify Your Audience
By determining your target
Audience Segments, we can
ensure that the content and
navigation of a design are
catered to drive your audience
to their own target areas of the
site, and empower your users to
make the best use of your new
site.

7. Analyze Behavior
CONDUCT INTERVIEWS/SURVEYS
– A day in the life
– Social activity
– Mobile usage
– How does your audience use your site?
– What do they need from your website?
– What sort of things do they hope to find on your site?

8. Analyze Behavior
LOOK AT GOOGLE ANALYTICS
– How are your users accessing your site?
– What pages are they visiting most often?
– What are the demographics?
– What user behavior trends can you find?
– What browsers are they using?
– How many mobile users are accessing the site?

9. Analyze Behavior
CURRENT SITE USABILITY
– How do users access information?
– Task paths
– Calls to Action
– Navigation Process
– How easy (or hard) is it for them to find what they need?
– Frustrations

10. Online Usability Testing
Online Usability Testing allows us to determine the
sticking points in your current site for
accomplishing specific tasks. Lets say you are not
getting the sort of conversions from a “Donate
Now” button on your home page – using software
like Usability Hub, we can determine how effect
that button is, and address the need for a more
effective call to action on your new design.
Usability Testing is most effective when we can
utilize several volunteers or constituents that
represent the user-base your site is intended to
draw.

11. Usability Workshop
We will explore, test and record your target audience’s ability
to successfully interact with your current website.

12. Create Personas
CREATE A SAMPLE – REAL PERSON
DEFINE USER HABITS
OUTLINE BEHAVIOR
MAP OUT THEIR DAY
DOCUMENT SOCIAL ACTIVITY
NOTE TECHNOLOGY SAVVY-NESS (IE, % MOBILE, ETC.?)
DOCUMENT HOW AND WHEN THEY ACCESS YOUR SITE
NOTE THEIR TOP 3 TASKS, IN ORDER

13. Create Personas

14. Prioritize
ASSIGN PRIORITY TO TASKS BY PERSONA
TAG TASKS BY HOW MUCH IT’S MENTIONED
DETERMINE TOP THREE MOST COMMON TASKS
PRIORITIZE TASKS ACROSS ALL PERSONAS FOR HOMEPAGE AND
NAVIGATION PRIORITIZATION

15. Audience task analysis
The Audience Task Analysis expands upon the Audience Segments identified and adds a detailed
analysis of the tasks each audience segment will be expected to perform on the new site. This
data is crucial in designing a interface that best targets the needs of each segment, and in
providing the information needed to design and build compelling section landing pages and
internal content pages.

16. Audience Analysis: Analyze

17. Audience Analysis: Tag Creation

18. Wire Frames
We can begin to build the architecture of your website now
that we have a thorough understanding of your audience and
their behaviors.

19. WHILE AUDIENCE-CENTRIC DESIGN IS KEY, YOU MUST NOT FORGET
ABOUT YOUR GOALS AND WORK THEM INTO THE DESIGN.
YOUR AUDIENCE’S GOALS + YOUR ORGANIZATION GOALS = WELL
PRIORITIZED SITE
REDUCING THE NOISE

20. Recap
IDENTIFY YOUR AUDIENCE
ANALYZE BEHAVIOR
CREATE PERSONAS
PRIORITIZE
OUTLINE YOUR TOP THREE GOALS
GET BUY-IN TO REDUCE THE NOISE

21. Next Steps
CREATE A VISUAL HIERARCHY
INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE AND SITE MAP
DETERMINE MOBILE PRIORITY

22. The GUIDE Series Continues…