Tips on designing for audiences

When considering designing for an audience, it is important not to get hung up on characterizations and stereotypes. While they can be considered, they usually are more offensive than helpful. For National Wildlife Federation, I choose to group audience types by passions and what motivates them. From that grouping, you start to see what commercial brands attempt to tap into those passions and makes decisions on whether you agree with those attempts (do all moms like picnics on a flower filled hill?).

Part of the research also requires looking at competitor sites and define what audience type they are trying to speak to. For NWF, we felt the audience we wanted to reach out to was not being considered by the competitors — outdoor types that enjoy their old Jeeps and ratty chinos. The audience that wants to feel nature on their face while they tend to their heirloom tomatoes in pouring rain. People that know the granduer of the outdoors cannot be contained in a web browser but appreciate a design that tries with big bold photos.

The website designs and the multiple subsite designs are completed but you’ll have to wait until October to explore the live experience. In the meantime, NWF needs our support to protect the threatened and disappearing wildlife – visit www.nwf.org for info.

It was a grand project that Alcoa and the Pew Center on Global Climate Change took on — build a calculator and resource site to equip the employees of Alcoa “To Make an Impact” and help save the Earth. What openbox9 provided was the strategy for the user-experience, the branding (logo created by 3rd party), and the interface design. Our hope is that the site does make an impact and our Earth reaps the rewards.