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Designing for our users
To make the Monash website a success, we need to design for our users. This section provides information about the target audience groups for the Monash website, and suggests ways in which you can work with your users to better understand their needs.
Target audience groups for the Monash website
The Monash website is used by three main audience groups:
- currently enrolled students
- Monash staff
- prospective students
In addition, a number of external groups are also part of the target audience for the site. These include:
- Monash alumni
- Business and community groups
- Media
- Parents of prospective and current students
- Benefactors and supporters of Monash University
- Business and research partners
- Prospective employers
- Prospective staff
- Communities local to Monash campuses
- Education and research communities
- VTAC, DEST, and other government groups
- Researchers at other universities and in industry
- Schools and teachers
Identifying the target audience for your site
Some Monash websites have may not have all these groups in their target audience, while others may need to cater for groups that are not identified in this list.
If you identify your audience, your website has a far greater chance of catering to their needs. It is important to work with business representatives, particularly those in marketing, to identify your target audience groups, as well as any secondary audiences.
Understanding users' needs
Once you have identified your target audience groups, you need to develop an understanding of their information needs, and the issues that affect how they use your website.
A number of methods can be used to assist with the task of understanding users' needs. These include:
- interviews
- focus groups or workshops
- surveys - online or on paper
- contextual inquiry - observing users in their workplace or study environment
- developing user "personas"
- search log analysis
- web server log analysis
- monitoring feedback from users.
When identifying users' needs and preferences, consider some of the following questions:
- What are your users' motivations, habits and preferences?
- Why are they likely to be visiting your site?
- What information or resources are they most interested in?
- How often do they visit?
- Do they prefer to search rather than browse?
- What do they like or dislike about your current website?
- What are the users' technological capacities?
- What kinds of computers and web browsers are your target user group using?
- What kind of internet connection will they have?
- Will they be in a country or remote location with limited bandwidth?
- Will they have plug-ins or other applications installed?
- What are the users' physical capacities or limitations?
- Is your audience ageing? If so, there are a number of age-related physical impairments such as loss of vision and hearing that may need to be considered.
- Might they have significant visual impairments?
- Are you likely to have users with motor skill impairments who might have difficulty with drop-down lists, or excessive clicking?
- Is your audience local or international?
- What cultural differences and sensitivities must be kept in mind?
- Do you use imagery, icons or terminology that might not be widely understood outside your culture?
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