Audience considerations of design
From The Learning Engineer's Knowledgebase
During the planning phases of a project (analysis and design), the audience considerations of design define the people who will use an educational product, the experiences that they bring, and commitments of the designers to ensuring that the audience experience is equitable, ethical, and accessible. The audience considerations of design is a part of defining the scope of an educational product design.
➡️ Designers can follow a step-by-step process for considering the audience factors of a design.
Definition
Consideration of the audience of an educational product design is a key component of defining the project's scope. When planning a design and analyzing the situation before the design and development begins, the audience's composition, prior experiences, backgrounds, and history should be considered. This information can be used to set parameters for the design of the educational product.
Additional Information
A person's background, interests, and needs plays a prominent role in whether someone will both (1) participate in and (2) learn from and educational product. Products that are not engaging for a particular audience will likely face low levels of participation, and products that do not align with an audience's prior knowledge and backgrounds may find that the participants have difficulty in understanding the activities or material, or lack the skills or tools to perform the expected tasks. With such mismatches, the most common challenge that designers face is low to no participation in the educational experience. This, obviously, means that the product had no impact in achieving learning outcomes.
During the planning phases of a project, designers take time to consider who will use their products and what the commonalities and differences between these people are. Designers also take time to analyze what the audience's prior experiences and backgrounds are and how these might influence how they will use (or not use) the educational product.
Audience considerations of design include:
- Composition of the audience, including the participants' common educational level, age, prior experience and knowledge, cultural and historical backgrounds, beliefs, values, and interests. Every audience is different and may need different things to find the activities interesting and relevant.
- Commitments to diversity in design, media and content representation, and participation
- Commitments to equity in design and activity for all participants
- Commitments to ethical treatment in design, particularly for children
- Commitments to accessibility for all participants
➡️ Designers can follow a step-by-step process for considering the audience factors of a design.
Tips and Tricks
- Designers first starting out on planning a project may want to consider using the step-by-step procedure of how to consider the audience aspects of a design. This walkthrough can help designers think about some of the key audience factors that may influence how an audience will interact with and benefit from an educational product.
- The audience considerations of an educational product design is only a part of the scope of the product - you should also consider the structural considerations and desired learning objectives while you are creating an initial scope and plan for the design.
- Consider the different ways that you can describe commonalities as well as differences in the audiences that might use your product. This is not to say that you should stereotype and make assumptions about people, but there are some common descriptions among people who might use an educational product, such as the age, grade level, or disciplinary area that the product will focus on.
- It is helpful to consider the degree to which your product will be seen, interpreted, and used by different groups of people. This includes thinking about how the widest range of people can accessibly use your product, whether the product equitably treats all participants and props them up when they need it, and whether diversity in people and cultures is represented among the product's media and content.
Related Concepts
- Determining audience considerations
- Project scope
- Analysis (project planning)
- Prior Knowledge and Experience
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