Audience Analysis
September 21, 2010. 2 comments.
“Welcome everyone to the exciting adventure of a whole new interface to create photo albums and share online with friends and family”. What is the first thing that should come to the reader’s mind? In my common sense of observation, the reader should acknowledge that this application is open for everyone. That’s what i believe :) People might think different. However, I would recommend a smart technical writer to grab this idea before just addressing every person in the town to teach how to run the generator. This does come with patience and craftiness when the writer begins to jot down the instructions before even realizing who is going to read the manual or say whatever the document is in his hands.
What brings you more closer to your customers (here we say audience of the document), is how you understand them. A tutorial aimed at a highly experienced professional would be different, that person might not need to run through the concepts over and over again, already knows the domain well. So our job is to just make life of such people heaven by easy to follow steps for our software. Since every software is process driven based on certain business scenario, so we can write instructions that he can seamlessly follow and get the job done. Bingo! But it’s not so easier, the writer needs to dig a lot of information from SME’s and other project stake holders, as well as look for the customer information on web and analyze their behavior.
At a point where I am frustrated to find the download link on a website, a unique and well presented button can make it easy for me to find. Similarly, a good manual for a mobile phone will help the user to locate the option to set the alarm then going through menus and finally cursing the manual writer. I hope, no writer would find it amusing while walking on the road and find its own written manual laying distorted on the street.
Analyze your audience, as you mold your tone to talk to your friends, family, co-workers and strangers on the road.
Happy Analyzing !
