Re: audience analysis resources

Subject: Re: audience analysis resources
From: Peter Neilson <neilson -at- windstream -dot- net>
To: Rob Hudson <caveatrob -at- gmail -dot- com>
Date: Fri, 02 Oct 2009 21:04:48 -0400

I'm probably gonna sound awfully stupid, but my method for audience
analysis has always been rather naive: ask them, or ask someone who
knows them.

For "beginner" audiences I usually test my document by presenting a very
early sample of it to an unsuspecting victim. I ask that a mini-review
happen right there as I watch. None of this "I'll get back to you," or
"I'll have to check with my boss about this," instead, please just look
at it now and tell me if you would be happy reading it. "I don't know
anything about this stuff," is not an excuse--it's supposed to be
written for those who don't know. But if the first couple of grafs don't
grab you, then it's no good.

Knowledgable audiences are more difficult to estimate, because they tend
to skim rather than read, and often "misunderestimate" their own
knowledge. I generally try to interview representative users, if they
can be found.

If I cannot meet with a representative from the audience, I'll use two
approaches. I'll check with my own manager and with marketing to see
what insight they can offer. And I'll talk to trustworthy friends and
relatives, assuming it's not a breach of confidentiality. My wife has a
degree in chemistry, and is a thus good detector of stuff that stinks.

Regardless, I try to retain my understanding that the measures of the
mind are not uniform, not reliable, and not always within our
preconceived dimensions. To be useful, an audience analysis must
describe the needs of the audience, and we should try to discover if our
initial estimate was on target. I try to test my document's assumptions
about the reader. I should probably test, and retest, then have others
run the test, discuss the results, and then test again. Marketing uses a
different approach: Run it up the flagpole and see if anybody salutes.

Perhaps no one's supposed to salute. I've occasionally come to the
realization that nobody will ever read the manual. The sooner I can find
that out, the less time I'll waste on audience analysis.

(My wife says, "If you do not have a good feel for the comprehension
level of the audience, you're better off writing for an audience that is
more naive, rather than more sophisticated.")
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Free Software Documentation Project Web Cast: Covers developing Table of
Contents, Context IDs, and Index, as well as Doc-To-Help
2009 tips, tricks, and best practices.
http://www.doctohelp.com/SuperPages/Webcasts/

Help & Manual 5: The complete help authoring tool for individual
authors and teams. Professional power, intuitive interface. Write
once, publish to 8 formats. Multi-user authoring and version control! http://www.helpandmanual.com/

---
You are currently subscribed to TECHWR-L as archive -at- web -dot- techwr-l -dot- com -dot-

To unsubscribe send a blank email to
techwr-l-unsubscribe -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
or visit http://lists.techwr-l.com/mailman/options/techwr-l/archive%40web.techwr-l.com


To subscribe, send a blank email to techwr-l-join -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com

Send administrative questions to admin -at- techwr-l -dot- com -dot- Visit
http://www.techwr-l.com/ for more resources and info.

Please move off-topic discussions to the Chat list, at:
http://lists.techwr-l.com/mailman/listinfo/techwr-l-chat


References:
audience analysis resources: From: Rob Hudson

Previous by Author: Re: Spend the noun
Next by Author: Re: font question: character height-to-stroke ratio
Previous by Thread: audience analysis resources
Next by Thread: Audience Analysis Resources


What this post helpful? Share it with friends and colleagues:


Sponsored Ads