Module 2 - Analyzing and Designing a Web Site
Site Audience
Knowing the audience for your web site can help you to design a site that meets the needs of a particular group of users. For example, if you design a web site for elementary school students, you will need to be sure that the language, images, navigation and organization of the site are designed so this audience can comprehend and make use of the materials you present. If you build a site for an agency, you want to be sure that the information and materials presented are designed to help that audience complete specific goals. Once you define the audience you can start to define the information they will want and/or the tasks they will need to complete on your site.
Approaching the design in this way is referred to as “user-centered” design, because the design of the site is always grounded in the needs of the user. A common mistake for first time web designers is to create a design that is “designer-centered” where the user’s needs are not fully recognized as central to the design. Designer centered designs are good in cases where you might be presenting something like art, music, or some sort of multimedia experience – then the site can be viewed more as an artistic presentation. However, if the purpose of your site is to inform, user-centered design is much more effective. In the context of the projects we will be working on in this class, where we are informing the audience about our topic, user-centered design is the better choice.