Web applications: Mind your audience

One of the most important characteristics of a user-centered web application is the target audience – who the application speaks to and who it serves. It is then strange, or illogical, that some companies still look at web-applications as one-size-fits-all when it comes to the site’s presentation and language.

Like you wouldn’t dress as a clown on a board meeting, your web app shouldn’t talk business when it means fun either. This is, even if a logical thing if you think about it, a big problem for most web-applications out there. This is mostly explained by the fact that many of the companies putting out web apps have a business layer attached to them that doesn’t dictate but inspires the global “stance” of the application.

It’s easier when you start out well

Thinking about your audience is the first thing you do after you have the idea. Who is going to use the application? Is it a business-oriented app? Are we serving adults or teenagers? Do we need to look light and fun, or do we need to sober up and be serious?

These are some of the questions you should ask yourself (and that your design and experience team should ask you, too) as soon as the idea turns into work – this is mainly because the idea, the feeling of the application, is going to be imprinted on you as soon as you start to iterate on design and development, and if you ever come to the conclusion that you’re talking to the wrong people through words or the UI, it’s going to be a pain to change everything.

So, let’s take some notes

One of the first steps you should take when developing a web application is thinking about its audience. Both the copy in your pages and the UI need to be focussed on the kind of people visiting, or they’ll feel uncomfortable. Remember the key question: “is the website adequate to my visitors?”.

The bottom line is that people need to connect to your website. If the vocabulary is adequate and it looks right to them, they will feel at home (this assuming the application itself makes sense – but that’s another post). Connect to your audience; think about them before you think about everything else.