How to Conduct an Audience Analysis for your Website
Welcome to part two of our four part series taking a Deep Dive on Discovery. This is our guide on How to Conduct an Audience Analysis for your Website. We rely heavily on these A-U-D-I-E-N-C-E elements and are happy to share this peek into our process with you!
Missed part one? The Discovery Phase of the Website Design Process.
Stay tuned for:
- Five Tips for a Successful Website Discovery Phase
- Using Data and Insights to Inform Your Website Redesign
The Importance of the Audience Analysis
The Audience Analysis is a critical part of the Discovery Phase for a website design project. It defines the group of users for whom the site is intended and identifies their needs. By understanding your audience, you’ll increase the chances that users will convert into customers.
We conduct this Audience Analysis exercise for most web design projects regardless of size. And since we’ve had nearly 20 years to refine our process, you can trust we know just what it takes to lay the foundation for a successful project.
The Jake Group’s A-U-D-I-E-N-C-E Analysis Framework
(A) Audience
Who is the primary audience for the website? Secondary users? Tertiary users? Rank each user group by order of priority.
(U) Understanding
How familiar are users with your company? Discuss how they are finding the website — personal referrals, existing relationships, Google search, and/or organic search.
(D) Demographics
Identify your users’ age, gender, occupation, geographic location, computer proficiency, etc. Discuss any Google Analytics data that provides insights about your demographics.
(I) Interest
Why are users interested in coming to the website? Describe how they are using your existing site and how you envision them using it in the future.
(E) Environment
Through what interface are your users most likely to view the site–desktop, mobile, and/or tablet? Discuss any special needs that might inform the website redesign. Discuss any Google Analytics data that provides insight about your users’ devices.
(N) Needs
What are your users’ needs once they land on the site? Define what actions you want them to take, and how you will measure performance.
(C) Customization
What specific custom features or functions are required for the new website? This could include items such as a customer/member log-in, newsletter sign-up, form submission, resource download, demo request, and more. Rank them in order of priority.
(E) Expectations
What will users expect from interacting with your company online? What about your brand promise should be translated to the new design (e.g., security, transparency)?
When to Conduct an Audience Analysis
The short answer is early in the process! The comprehensive Analysis happens during the Discovery Phase as we are collecting information about our client, their goals, creative and technical requirements, and more. We complete a 10-Step Process for Web Design with Discovery laying the crucial groundwork for the entire project.
Next Steps
Bookmark this page as a great resource for a tried and tested method of digging into your online audience groups. Next up will be Part Three of this series, with pro-tips to ensure a successful Discovery Phase. Stay tuned for that.
And if you’re ready to discuss your next project, we’d love to hear from you.
Interested in learning more? Drop us a line and get us involved from the start!