Design for an audience

Definition

Conceiving content or a scheme from an explicit intention and a real knowledge of the intended audience: empathy, fit between message, format and channel, attention paid to the experience of reception. Creating for someone, not merely in front of someone.

Components

• Defining intent: to inform, to move, to make understood, to prompt action — and verifying it
• Knowing the audience: expectations, level, context and conditions of reception
• Choosing the format/channel pairing according to message and recipient
• Clarity and cognitive load: prioritising, pruning, testing comprehension
• The reception loop: gathering the effect actually produced and adjusting
• Inclusive design: considering distant or excluded audiences from the outset

The four levels

1. N1 Discovery Lower secondary · complete beginner

   Is able to say whom a piece of content addresses and what it seeks to produce in its recipient.

   Evidence of assessment

   Analyse two pieces of content (target audience, intent, means used) and create one with an explicit intent.

2. N2 Application Upper secondary · advanced beginner

   Is able to adapt the same message to two different audiences.

   Evidence of assessment

   Adapt one message for two distinct audiences, with justified formal choices.

3. N3 Adaptation Tertiary · junior professional

   Is able to test the actual reception of a piece of content and to adjust it accordingly.

   Evidence of assessment

   Produce a first version, gather feedback from real recipients, deliver a second version with documented differences.

4. N4 Orchestration Experienced professional

   Is able to formalise audience-centred design into an explicit, reusable method, and to adjust it to an audience they do not know in advance.

   Evidence of assessment

   Document a design method (personas, reception journeys) and apply it to two contrasting audiences, setting out what had to be adjusted.