the audience

kelly ludwig, assistant professor

kcai graphic design department

(excerpted from Visualising Information for Advocacy by tacticaltech.org & informationactivism.org)

design process
1. Examine
2. Understand (research, strategy, gather information,
interpret information, feedback)
3. Ideate
4. Experiment
5. Distill

02 understand:
the audience

the answer is the justification for your work. you and your audience must understand the reason behind the proposal.

02 Understand
Based on your initial research, you will create your
problem/question statement.

Conduct audience research

Understand your research

Go deeper and find patterns.

Establish open questions to build on

This is the analytical phase

who is your audience?

Audience #1: Who are you trying to help?

ex: students that need meals over the weekend

who is your audience?

Audience #2: Who are you trying to reach?

ex: people to donate food or money, parents, etc.

who are the stakeholders?

Stakeholders are people, groups, organizations, or
institutions that are connected to the problem you are
trying to solve.
They may:

support your campaign

be adversely aected by the issue in question

have the power to change the situation

or even be responsible for the problem you have

identified.

An important task when designing your campaign is to learn as much about the stakeholders as possible.

who is your audience?

Who will be aected both positively and negatively?

How are these people related to the problem?

To each other?

what are their needs?

What are the needs for each of your audiences?

How does your idea support (or change) those needs for
each?

Who are you communicating this need to?

Why?

more about the audience

What is their current level of understanding?

Why do they care?

Why arent they doing anything already?

What may change their mind and why?

What influences them and why?

What is the best way to reach them (their communication

environment)

immerse yourself
What will be your
strategy?
How do you build
trust?

Immersion is any number of ways you spend time with the

community.

touring through neighborhoods

regularly meeting with community leaders

conducting focus groups

canvassing the community

community and organizational leaders are partners in the design process, they are the currency and creed that you need to engage with other members
this a key way to learn what the true needs are

immerse yourself
Listen.

Spend time getting to know the community you work with

Regularly visit community leaders & engage them as

partners throughout the design process

Work side-by-side with members of the community and

observe their daily lives (volunteering!)

Be prepared to give up a certain amount of control and let

the communitys input inform your design decisions

Be clear in your communication with community partners

Community and organizational leaders are partners in the design process, they are the currency and creed that you need to engage with other members
this a key way to learn what the true needs are

build trust
There is no holy grail for community involvement. It
requires full authenticity and relationship.

what are some ways to build trust?

Approach each situation with an open mind

Experiences will guide your research

build trust

what are some ways to build trust?

Find ways to bond and build strong relationships with

community leaders

Help community members in their daily operations

(volunteer)

Show them that you take them seriously and that you
truly care

02 understand:
strategy

who will get you there?

What is your audiences current position?

What will nudge or change this (receptivity scale)

What would change if your project was successful?

create a common vision

a shared understanding of the problem will stimulate ideas

Decide as a group what the core problem you seek to

address

What would the world be like without this problem?

Use words, diagrams, illustrations, etc

Imagine unlimited resources

Discuss all of the benefits in this imagined world

how will you get there?

What resources are needed to address the change?

manpower, financial, etc.

hard goods

materials to produce for marketing

What resources are available?

What are avenues to get the resources?

Decide what you

want to know
Identify your advocacy goal

what pieces of information will have the most impact in

reaching that goal?

identify the sources to find this information

do the background research

Try to find information that has already been published

we will be discussing audience research at greater length soon.

search engines, websites

libraries

talking to public ocials

Promise only what

you can deliver

This plays into building trust as well. time management!

Avoid trying to solve all of the communitys design needs

Accurately estimate the time and resources that you can

contribute

Identify the deadline of the project and work backwards

Establish a budget and stick with it

Identify assets in the community that you can build on

established infrastructure and services

unique skills or resources

Visualising Information for Advocacy, tacticaltech.org

Designing for Social Change, Andrew Shea

informationactivism.org

design process kills creativity, design process creates

creativity by Daniel Stillman