Audience Information

As discussed in the development methodology, this element is concerned with pin-pointing the target audience as well as considering information about the audience relevant to the web development.

Cluster Diagram

To establish the target audience for the ICS web, I wrote down every potential user I could think of, and then arranged them into the following cluster diagram;

I then made use of colour to identify;

• The principle audience. This is the audience the web is designed specifically for.
• The secondary audience. The web is, in general, not aimed at these groups, but they must not be forgotten about.

The remaining (unshaded) groups of people, I decided will come under a different category.

Principle Audience Definition

The principle audience definition (the most popular first) can therefore be considered to be;

1. Current ICS students
2. Current ICS staff
3. Potential ICS students
4. Friends of current personnel

I believe the current ICS students will make most use of the web, and I have decided to bear this group in mind when designing the home page.

Audience Characteristics

Much of the information I am giving at this stage may not have a direct contribution to the design of the web. I still supply this information, however, to allow reviews of the web to understand my reasoning about forthcoming elements of the web.

This is a list of characteristics of the audience, relevant to developing the web.

• Current staff and students ("members")
  Are Web literate, well-educated
• Friends of current members
  May be web-illiterate, want quick results
• Potential members
  May be web-illiterate, want quick results, well-educated

Audience Concerns

This is a list of relevant concerns of the target audience. This list explores what the audience want with relation to the departmental web.

• Current ICS members
  • Topics concerning the ICS Department
    • want to be able to view time-tables for courses
    • want to be able to view and/or contribute to a departmental noticeboard
    • may require access to web-based components of modules (i.e. courses)
    • want to be able to view and/or contribute to a departmental calendar of events
  • Access to the Internet
    • want to view relevant faq's
    • want access to good search engines
    • want to learn about WWW authoring
    • want to know how to publicise their own web pages
  • General Topics
    • members want to contact other members
    • want to view available modules (courses) to choose from, including descriptions and may want help choosing them
    • want to be able to view/contribute to internal/external news reports
    • want post-graduate job information
    • want information about industrial placements
    • want information about Erasmus exchanges
• Friends of current members
  • want to contact a their friend as quickly and easily as possible
  • want to see their friends homepage
  • want to email their friend
  • want to phone them, write to them etc.
• Potential members
  • want to see all degree/module/project possibilities
  • want to know about life in Lund or at university
  • want to ask questions - to teachers, to current students
  • want to know 'how good' Lund University is compared to others
  • want to see current and past research
  • want to see photographs of the department - inside and out
  • want to know "how do I get there?", "how do I make contact?", "how do I enroll?", "how do I fund it?"
  • want to know who to ask these questions to

Audience Activities

This list explores activities of the target audience which may give more information about them, or more insight into how the web can best suit their needs.

• Current members
  • teach
  • study
  • communicate
  • attend trade shows, presentations
  • use the WWW
• Friends of current members
  • may use the WWW
  • communicate with current members
• Potential members
  • investigate various universities
  • may use the WWW

A later addition to the target audience not seen here, are people trying to locate research projects. This group of people have similar concerns and characteristics to the "friends of current members". This component of the web will be featured in subsequent sections.

Thus, I now have a definition of the target audience, as well as lists of useful information about them. This will contribute to the next web element, the purpose statement.