the audiencekelly ludwig, assistant professor kcai graphic design department

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

the audience

1. Examine

2. Understand (research, strategy, gather information, interpret information, feedback)

3. Ideate

4. Experiment

5. Distill

design process

02 understand: the audience

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

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

02 Understand

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 affected 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 affected 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 aren’t 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

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

What will be your strategy?

How do you build trust?

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 community’s 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.” • Approach each situation with an open mind • Experiences will guide your research

what are some ways to build trust?

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

what are some ways to build trust?

02 understand: strategy

who will get you there?

• What is your audience’s current position? • What will nudge or change this (receptivity scale) • What would change if your project was successful?

create a common vision

• 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

a shared understanding of the problem will stimulate ideas

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 • search engines, websites • libraries • talking to public officials

we will be discussing audience research at greater length soon.

Promise only what you can deliver

• Avoid trying to solve all of the community’s 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

This plays into building trust as well. time management!

• 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