Requirements Gathering and Analysis
Web sites cannot be designed to please all people all the time. Equally, a website without visitors is a waste. People visit websites for different reasons, such as:
- Find general information about a subject
- Access hard to find resources or resources not readily available elsewhere
- Download/use software
- Correspond with people
- Get feedback from the public
- Learning resources
- For fun and relaxation
- To make a living
- To buy goods and services
As a web designer, you have to decide how you want the site to work for each segment of the population based on: user preferences, platforms, network speeds, etc. This article shows you how to plan for a website that will get visitors.
Define your target audience
First define your target audience to determine what content to place on-line and how best to present it. When defining your target audience (the people you hope will visit your site), include aspects like:
- Age
- Gender
- Education
- Occupation
- Computer experience
- Socio-economic level
When choosing which groups of users to exclude from your target audience, a good question to ask yourself is:
Is it OK for this group to say "This site does not work for me."?
