IT Applications Theory Slideshows

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IT Applications Theory Slideshows
Characteristics of Audiences

• By Mark Kelly
• McKinnon Secondary College
• Vceit.com

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Audience?

• In publishing, the audience is the group of
  people who are expected to read, see or listen to
  your publication.
• Sometimes you will accurately know the nature and
  needs of your audience
• This makes publishing a heck of a lot easier.
• Can tailor the material to suit the audience.

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For Example

• Mr Bozo, the clown is not going to lose sleep
  trying to figure out the content of his material
  for that 4 year old girl's party tomorrow.
• Neither will Mr Bozo be in much doubt about how
  he should present his material.

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The audience affects

• The content (the topics covered, and the level of
  detail)
• The manner of presentation (e.g. vocabulary
  choices)

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A General Audience

• Could contain any sort of people.
• Very hard to craft your material to suit everyone
• Need to be careful not to offend, confuse, bore
  or alienate people.

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Characteristics

• Audiences can be categorised by many different
  characteristics those features that make them
  different to other people.
• Is important to keep the characteristics and
  needs of your audience in mind.

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Knowledge levels

• A lecture for surgeons would not have to explain
  what a scalpel is.
• For kids, you would explain it.
• Would foreigners understand references to Ned
  Kelly or footy?

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• Interest levels
• some audiences are captive and must pay attention
  to a publication (e.g. students in class)
• But most audiences are voluntary to some degree
• If their needs are not considered,they will turn
  off or walk out

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Criteria for Success

• Information presentations (slideshows, films,
  databases, ads, animations, websites anything!)
  must be judged by how well they communicate their
  information to the audience
• If the audience ignores it, or walks out, the
  presentation is a failure regardless of its
  beauty or technical brilliance.

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A reluctant audience

• If your audience is reluctant to pay attention
  (e.g. year 12 ITA students), you need to take
  this into account
• And to keep them engaged you might need to do
  things like

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THIS
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OR THIS
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• language skills
• Many publications (especially on the web) have
  international audiences
• Not everyone speaks English well or at all
• For many people, English is a second language

• Dont assume all members of your audiences
  speak fluent English, or know big words.

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Language skills

• Choose small words when you can
• Use simple sentences
• Short
• One main idea
• No complex or obscure grammar
• Avoid local idioms e.g. slang, local knowledge
• Accurate spelling
• Accurate punctuation

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• Age
• people of different ages are attracted to and
  interested by different things
• some topics are unpleasant, irrelevant or
  unsuitable for people of certain ages.

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SEX
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• Males and females are different
• You might have noticed already
• Compare products (e.g. phones, cars) marketed to
  one gender or the other
• Advertisers know how to target each sex

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Activity

• Find one ad for a vehicle that is clearly aimed
  at women buyers.
• Find another ad for a car that is clearly aimed
  at male buyers.
• What differences are there in terms of the
  content and appearance of the ads?

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What to do

• Avoid gender stereotypes
• Dont insult either sex
• Be sensitive to the fact that some cultures,
  treat males and females very differently

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• Information needs
• different types of people need to know different
  things, in different levels of detail.
• Too much information boredom
• Too little information confusion
• Wrong selection of information irrelevance

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• Special needs
• Colour blind
• Vision-impaired
• Hearing-impaired
• Intellectually-impaired
• Attention Deficit Disorder
• Poor coordination, etc.
• May be impossible to cater to them all
• But dont make it unnecessarily hard for them
  either (e.g. poor colour contrast, mumbling
  voice, tiny buttons)

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• Culture and background
• Not everyone is like you.
• What is normal to you is not normal for everyone,
  e.g. date formats, commas in numbers,
  abbreviations, slang terms.

Q. Which of these trucks is abnormal?
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• Culture and background
• Some beliefs are powerfully held
• Some words or concepts are hateful to some
  groups.
• Dont joke about politics, sex or religion

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Then

• 2) What are their information needs?
• What do they need to know?
• What topics to cover?
• How much detail to go into?

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Then

• 3) How can you best present the information to
  them?
• Format?
• Book? Poster? Slideshow? Web site? Film or
  animation? A combination of these?
• Style?
• Funny? Serious? Decorative? Plain? Big print?
  Colour scheme?
• Language?
• Simple or sophisticated? Jargon?

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If possible

• Test the material with a representative sample
  audience before subjecting the whole audience to
  it.

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IT APPLICATIONS SLIDESHOWS

• By Mark Kelly
• McKinnon Secondary College
• vceit.com

These slideshows may be freely used, modified or
distributed by teachers and students anywhere on
the planet (but not elsewhere). They may NOT be
sold. They must NOT be redistributed if you
modify them.