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Subject:Surveys/Audience analysis - Summary2 From:Stuart Burnfield <slb -at- FS -dot- COM -dot- AU> Date:Mon, 23 Mar 1998 10:14:44 +0800
Damien Braniff <Damien_Braniff -at- PAC -dot- CO -dot- UK> said:
> That is the way that I used to see my audience -- fairly homogenous.
> Until I performed an audience analysis ... for a scanner/software
> package. I discovered that, for a product such as that in commercial
> market, it is nearly impossible to nail down a user type. I had a
> housewife with practically no computer experience who wanted to scan
> recipes into a recipe application, a business owner with expert
> computer knowledge who wanted to use it with a document management
> system, a graphic artist with little computer knowledge but expert
> graphics application knowledge who was going to use it for scanning
> illustrations.
An interesting problem. I'd probably start with Damian's solution
(Getting Started/Basics plus comprehensive Reference), though it feels
incomplete. As Damian points out, the audience doesn't divide neatly
into beginners/experts, so splitting the manual that way isn't ideal.
What about a third section, based on scenarios or worked examples?
You could include some of the examples you've already identified --
- scanning recipes
- making a scrapbook of a child's drawing and writing
- producing a portfolio of samples for a student (the graphic artist
example could be used for a more advanced tutorial dealing with
colour correction, retouching, and so on)
- producing a newsletter for a club, charity or small business
- scanning product shots for a stock catalogue
- the document management example
At the start of each example you could identify the type of task and
the sort of features that will be covered -- cropping, capturing,
choosing a graphic format, retouching, applying effects, etc.
That way people have two ways to find a relevant example:
- I want to scan pictures for a newsletter so I'll check the newsletter
example
- I want to make my design look as good as possible so I'll read the
examples that cover image quality.
Has anybody tried this sort of approach?
Regards
---
Stuart Burnfield That which does not kill me, makes me stranger
Functional Software Pty Ltd mailto:slb -at- fs -dot- com -dot- au
