Understanding your users is the foundation for effective communication. It is one of the first steps in planning before you develop content. 

Whatever kind of content you are developing, getting input and feedback from people who will use it goes a long way to ensuring that it meets their needs. Understanding your users helps you decide what information should be included, how it should be structured, and the language and tone that you use.

Understanding your users is even more important if your content has several audiences. Feedback provides insights into the different needs of your audiences so that you can consider these when developing the content. You can test developed content with users and continue to refine the content in an iterative process. User research and testing is usually intended for developing online content, but you can also use aspects of it for developing printed content.

By getting a clear picture of your users, you can ensure that your content is tailored to their needs.

Identifying your users

Be specific when identifying the users of your content. If your content will be publicly available, that does not mean that your target user group is every member of the public. If your content does need to be understood and accessed by a large and diverse group, you can create subgroups to better understand their different needs. 

When identifying and defining your users, think about:

  • who needs to know this information, and why? How does it affect their lives (for example, their wellbeing or work?)
  • who might be interested in this information, and why?
  • what program, message or call to action is the content supporting, and who will be affected by it?
  • who do you want to understand your content?

Some of these questions may have already been answered in other plans that your organisation has created, such as communications, engagement and product design plans related to the content. Consult these to make sure all aspects have a common understanding of user needs. If these plans have not yet been developed, share your insights from user research to make sure all activities complement each other.

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