Re: Audience Analysis

[Charlotte Hosking <CHosking -at- AOL -dot- COM>]

In a message dated 96-09-05 09:28:10 EDT, moleary -at- LSUVM -dot- SNCC -dot- LSU -dot- EDU (Marilyn
Barrett O'Leary) writes:

<< Re:    Jennifer Chiki wrote on  Audience Analysis:

 >  I am sure many of you can relate to my situation - I really have no idea
 >  WHO I am writing for.
 >
 >  So, I am attempting to put together a proposal on how my development lab
 >  can obtain user feedback and audience analysis in order to improve our
 >  documentation and also improve writer confidence.

 >  I would like to develop some audience analysis tools such as a
 >  questionnaires, client site visits, customer interviews, job shadowing,
 >  etc., to determine just who are users are and what sort of documentation
 >  needs they have.
  >>

It also helps to talk to whoever is doing customer support: types of calls,
recurring problems, percentage of customers calling for support, areas that
are particularly troublesome for customers, etc. Anyone doing consistent
customer support gets a feel for who the customers are. On the other hand,
anyone doing consistent customer support may feel that all their customers
are idiots.

Charlotte Hosking
Clarion Info
CHosking -at- aol -dot- com

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