Get to Know Your Target Audience

When beginning the Web design process it is important to find out who the target audience is. Who will most likely come to your site and why? The answer to this question will greatly increase your chance of building a successful and highly usable Web site.

In the planning phase of the project, a designer should try to find out as much as s/he can about the target audience demographics:

• age
• gender
• income/occupation
• how they connect to the Internet (bandwidth)
• screen resolutions
• browsers used
• other technical capabilities

This is just a short list and there will be other aspects to discover depending on the type of Web site project. This information will keep the designer(s) focused on who they are designing for.

It is also very helpful to create a scenario of what a visitor will want to do when they visit the site. What are the main reasons the visitor will visit your site? Is it because they want to learn more about your product or service? Or do they want to contact your customer service department for help with their purchase? Planning for these events will greatly increase site usability - which ultimately means happy (and returning) customers.