A Concise Guide to Researching Audiences - Strategic Content ...

The Guide to Researching AudiencesConcise editionTable 3‐1: selecting appropriate methods (Key: - unlikely to be suitable; * may be suitable, but oflimited use; ** often suitable)Aspect ofaudienceQuantitativesurveyWeb statisticsEthnographicstudiesFocus groupsIndividualinterviewInformalOtherapproachesSize ** ** - - - - -Composition ** * - - - * -Motivations ** * - ** ** * -Attitudes ** * - ** ** - -Satisfaction ** * - ** ** - -Prevalence of non-usage ** - - * - -Reasons for non-usage - - - ** ** - -Patterns of usage - ** ** * * - -Tasks service is used for ** ** ** usertracking** ** - -Lifestyle * - ** * ** - -Service usability * * ** * * - Heuristicevaluation 6User requirements - - ** ** ** * -3.4 Researching non-usage 63.4.1 Understanding non-use of a service is important: publicly funded services may have a responsibility toservice a particular audience (eg senior citizens, ethnic minority communities).3.4.2 Engaging with non-users may be difficult, time-consuming and potentially expensive, but it should beviewed as a necessary part of audience development work. Building relationships with non-users will paydividends: 7• The views of non-users are not represented in user surveys and the digital service is not meeting theirneeds; this may be an important failing• Non-users can provide valuable insights for service development• Engaging non-users can help demonstrate a commitment to that audience segment and increaseknowledge about marketing and communication strategies that will be effective for that segment3.4.3 Sub-section 3.5 of the full-version of the Guide provides more information on the importance of, difficultieswith, and possible strategies for researching non-users.3.5 Recruiting subjects for audience research3.5.1 Recruiting subjects is a perennial problem and the easiest technique may not always be the best, and maylead to an unrepresentative, biased sample. Incentives can be used to aid recruitment, but care needs to betaken to ensure that the incentive is appropriate to the audience you seek to recruit.6 Heuristic evaluation is where expert evaluators assess the service’s user interface against recognised usability criteria. This method fallsoutside the scope of this guide but is described briefly in the full-version of the Guide because of its utility in the early stages of servicedevelopment.7 Responses to a survey may not provide very much information. Engaging more deeply with non-users through focus groups, discussion foraand interviewing will be necessary to build a richer, more meaningful understanding of non-usage.PAGE 163. Planning audience research