Audiences
Audience appreciation
When planning / creating ICT solutions, we need to consider the
audience who will use or share in the solution.
Here are two different examples to explain audience appreciation:
1) First example:
considers using presentation software to make a presentation for an
audience.
2) Second example:
considers the general audience requirements when developing a
new website.
Both examples will follow similar steps because the end results are
similar.
First Example:
Giving a presentation to an audience
When writing a presentation of ICT solution aimed a specific audience,
we need to consider the following factors:
1 The age of the target group.
2 The experiences of the audience.
3 The expectation of the audience.
4 Knowledge of the audience.
How can you know the characteristics of your audience?
Some techniques to identify the characteristics of your target audience
(market research techniques):
● Interviewing with the target group (to involve the audience).
● Giving questionnaires or online surveys to the target group (to
know: background, interests, and so on).
Once you have data from your audience, you can then analyses it.
Giving a sample presentation to an audience
Example:
A phone company market a different mobile phone. The company
has decided to produce two presentations (by ICT solution), regarding
the sales and features of the four different mobile phones:
● One presentation gave to mobile phone sales team. They
receive bonus payments depending on the phone sold.
● A second presentation gave to mobile phone customers team.
Presentation:
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How would these two presentations differ? The first group (the sales
team), will have technical knowledge and will be interested in the
profitability of each sale. The second group (end-users) will only be
interested in the price and the features found on each phone.
So, because of that, key factors when writing the presentations include:
● The language used
● The need for multimedia
● The length of the presentation
● The need for audience participation (an interactive approach)
● The examples used to illustrate certain points.
Second example:
Audience characteristics-when developing a new ICT solution
In this example we are setting out to develop a new website. As with the
previous example, you need to consider certain factors regarding the
audience:
● Audience characteristics
● The needs of the audience
● Why you need to consider the needs of your audience.
a) Audience characteristics
Ask yourself: Who will be using the new website?
First, consider the characteristics of your target audience when using
the new website:
● Age range
● Income levels
● Interests
● Disabilities or impairments.
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Age range
Income levels
Interests
Disabilities or impairments.
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As in the previous example, you could determine the characteristics of
the audience who are likely to use the new website by:
● Interviewing a cross section of the target group
● Giving out questionnaires or surveys to people in the target group
to find out their background, interests, age range, and so on
● Analysing this data and drawing conclusions about the audience.
b) Needs of the audience
Once you have established the characteristics of the audience that the
website is aimed at, it is necessary to understand their needs, to ensure
the final product is fit for purpose.
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c) Why we need to consider the needs of our audience
It’s important to consider the needs of audience, because:
● If your audience are older people, or have sight problems, then it
is important to ensure that the website is clear- to-read fonts.
● Complex language for children or people who have English as
their second language (text needs to be clear and easy to read).
● It must hold the attention of the users (interactive).
● Attractive screen designs will attract users to the website.
● Make interfaces clear and easy to use.
● Lots of typing can be very frustrating.
If you know your audience and understand their needs - before starting
to develop the new ICT solution - then it will success.
As well as a presentation or website this could be a new computer
game, a database or a new virtual reality system.
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Copyright
Software copyright and piracy
Software is protected by copyright laws. When software is supplied on
CD, DVD or online there are certain rules that must be obeyed.
It is illegal to:
● Make a software copy, then sell it or give it to a someone.
● Use software on a network or on many computers without a
licence allows that.
● Sell a software after getting the coding from the copyright without
the permission of the owner.
● Rent out a software without permission from the publishers.
● Use the name of copyrighted software on other software without
agreement to do so.
Software piracy is the illegal copying of software and it’s a big issue
among software companies. They take many steps to stop the illegal
copying. To protect a software either by:
Making the installer agree to certain conditions
or Methods which require the original software to be present for it
to work.
These Methods (which require the original software) are:
1) Typing in a unique reference number or product key (When
installing a software).
2) Clicking ‘OK’/’I AGREE’ to the licence agreement (before the
software continues to install).
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3) Using a hard copy of agreement with the original software to inform
the purchaser.
4) Run the software from the CD, DVD or memory stick where actually
in the drive.
5) Run the software with a dongle plugged in a USB port.
A dongle is a small device, plugged into computer’s USB ports. It is
used for wireless communications with devices. It's also used to protect
software (important files will run only if the dongle is plugged in).
The Federation Against Software Theft (FAST) was set up in the
UK to protect the software industry against piracy. FAST prosecutes
organisations and people who are involved in copyright criminals, by
legal penalties for anyone found guilty.
Some organisations found in many countries to globally protect
software, and intellectual property, from piracy. For examples:
International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA) in the USA
Japan Intellectual Property Association (JIPA) in Japan.
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