1. Unit 1: Setting Project requirements
Your Audience
Unit 1: Setting Project requirements

2. Your Audience Getting to know your client - THE KICKOFF MEETING
Hold the client kickoff meeting before work begins on a new project. At this initial meeting, you can gather critical information about:
The client’s business
The main competitors
The project’s purpose
The client’s audience
The audience needs

3. Your Audience KNOW YOUR CLIENT What is your client’s primary business?
What is your client’s purpose for this project?
Research in advance your client’s website and goals.
Review any available marketing material.
Review competitors’ web presence and marketing material.
Who is your client’s target audience for this project?

4. Your Audience KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE
Who is the client’s target audience? What are the target audience demographics? Look for common traits within this audience to inform your design.
Age
Occupation
Gender
Education
Residence
Ethnicity
Computer literacy

5. Your Audience CLUES ABOUT YOUR AUDIENCE
Sometimes the client cannot provide all the information you need about the target audience. Ask about the client’s main competitors and partners, and search the Web for more clues.
Look for anything that might be relevant to inform you about their world
Company websites of competitors and partners
Other information related to the topic of your project, such as colors, patterns, and special graphics

6. Your Audience YOUTH AUDIENCES
Youth audiences are typically more comfortable with rich media content, but they’re also highly discerning.
What types of colors, images and type (fonts) would appeal to a youth audience?

7. Your Audience URBAN PROFESSIONALS
Urban professionals are tech savvy and constantly connected via smartphones and other portable devices.
What types of color, images, and type (fonts) would appeal to urban professionals?

8. Your Audience FOR A MATURE AUDIENCE
This age group can be divided into two groups:
A mature audience that has little experience with the latest technology
A mature audience consisting of baby boomers who are experienced with the latest technology
What types of color, images, and type (fonts) would appeal to elderly audiences?

9. Your Audience FOR A CORPORATE AUDIENCE
Are made up of the companies, their clients, and their customers
What types of color, images, and type (fonts) would appeal to corporate audiences?

10. Selecting Graphics for Your Audience
CHOOSING THE RIGHT GRAPHICS AND IMAGES
The graphics and images you choose will also depend on your client’s business. Select graphics and images that best represent your client’s customers or target audience.
Even if the client is a business, the true audience will be the customers who use that business. Customers relate most to graphics and images of people in situations similar to their own.

11. Selecting Graphics for Your Audience
FOR A HOSPITAL CLIENT OR SENIOR CARE FACILITY
Images to consider:
Caring doctor or nurse at a patient’s bedside
Doctor or nurse working with a patient (e.g., using a stethoscope; tucking in the sheets)
Confident doctor standing in front of his team
Friendly caretaker assisting a senior
Images to avoid:
Patients obviously in pain
Crowded hallways or emergency rooms
Empty hospital rooms
Seniors looking sad or appearing overlooked

12. Selecting Graphics for Your Audience
FOR A BANK CLIENT
Images to consider:
A friendly bank teller at his/her station
A couple at a desk with a friendly-looking bank officer
A banker welcoming a customer who enters the bank
Images to avoid:
Customers who look disappointed or worried
Stock sticker or any image that could be interpreted as a sign of
financial instability
Generic-looking bank building

13. Selecting Graphics for Your Audience
FOR A HIGH-TECH CLIENT
Images to consider:
Professional portrait of company founders, if available
Young people working in a modern, open office in business dress (no ties or suit jackets)
A small group whose members are collaborating intently, in casual business dress
Images to avoid:
People working in cubicles (or a row of cubicles)
An individual working at a computer that is simply generic
Generic modern office buildings

14. Selecting Graphics for Your Audience
FOR A NONPROFIT CLIENT
Images to consider:
Professional photographs of programs in action (e.g., after-school programs; Habitat for Humanity home-building days)
Professional group photographs of the nonprofit’s staff and/or volunteers
Professional photographs of fundraising events
Images to avoid:
Generic stock images of volunteers or programs
Street views of the office building
Images that have no relation to the nonprofit’s work (e.g., young families, when the nonprofit works exclusively with seniors)