Categorizing and Getting to Know Your Audience

In any client-based project, the audience is the most important part. A successful website is based upon how well the designer knows who will be seeing the website. For instance, if a group of male engineers is looking at a website about their career, they probably will be turned off to something frilly. That is not to say that stereotypes are key, but they do exist (this is inevitable).

One of the most important parts of understanding your audience is being able to expect what they will think of your site when they see it. A designer needs to put themselves in the shoes of the end-user. I thought that the "Categorizing Your Audience" article was very accurate in explaining that different connection speeds, expertise in using a web site, and different operating systems can all serve as a way to hinder certain audiences from being able to use the website that you created.