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We at Interfacile act on the principle that defining a product
audience is an essential prerequisite for designing a web site or
a software application. The user profile will affect the way we
design and evaluate the interface. The experience, characteristics,
needs, skills, and requirements of the user can affect design decisions
at all levels.
We consider users in terms of both individual and group differences.
Individual differences include characteristics such as skill and
personality factors, while group differences include characteristics
such as national language and cultural factors. Recognizing these
differences and identifying the predominant audience characteristics
enable us to place appropriate constraints on interface design and
interaction style.
Successful usability design practice also takes into account peoples'
cognitive limitations and capabilities, including the abilities
to assimilate, retain, and retrieve information. For user interface
evaluation, it is easier to select test participants who are representative
of the intended audience if we already know the predominant and
important audience characteristics.
To generate an audience profile, we perform the following tasks:
- identify the relevant individual differences;
- identify and specialize the cognitive processing capabilities
and limits;
- generate audience definition and categorization.
We will produce for our clients a user experience requirements
document that includes a definition of the target audience for a
given web site or software application. It also includes specification
of the relevant characteristics, the range and frequency values
of the identified characteristics, and how this specified information
might impact design decisions.
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