Chapter 3

Getting to Know Your Users

Introduction

The importance of understanding the target audience for your application isn’t newly recognized; actually, marketing research firms spend countless hours running focus groups, surveying, and interviewing people to understand potential markets and users for their clients’ products. When it comes to designing software applications, and the content within them, the same diligence should be applied for understanding the needs, knowledge levels, and working environment of potential users. Large corporations often have entire teams dedicated to user research or pay large amounts of money for someone to do it for them. Although your company may not be able to devote the same amount of time and manpower ...

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