IGCSE ICT (0417) Study Notes: 9.1 Audience Appreciation

Hello future ICT expert! This chapter is all about making sure that the amazing document, presentation, or website you create is actually useful and suitable for the people who will see it. In ICT, it doesn't matter how technically clever your solution is if the audience can't understand or use it. We call this skill
Audience Appreciation.

What You Will Learn:

  • How to figure out who your audience is (The 'Who').
  • How to determine the goal of your solution (The 'Why').
  • How to plan and design solutions that are responsive and respectful.

Section 1: Understanding Audience and Purpose

When you create an ICT solution (like a poster, a presentation, a database report, or a website), you must have a clear Audience and a clear Purpose.

The Audience (The 'Who')

The Audience is the group of people who will be using or viewing your ICT product.

Analogy: Imagine you are buying a car. If your audience is a busy delivery driver, the 'car' (your ICT solution) needs a big storage area and good fuel economy. If your audience is a Formula 1 racer, the 'car' needs extreme speed and specialised controls. You wouldn't give the delivery driver a racing car!

The Purpose (The 'Why')

The Purpose is the reason the ICT solution is being created. What is it supposed to achieve?

Common ICT purposes include:

  • To Inform: (e.g., A school newsletter).
  • To Persuade: (e.g., A marketing website to sell a product).
  • To Educate/Train: (e.g., A presentation slide show for a lesson).
  • To Display Data: (e.g., A database report showing sales figures).

Key Takeaway: Before you open any software, you must know who needs the information and what they need to do with it. This forms the foundation of all good ICT design.

Section 2: Analysing the Needs of an Audience

To ensure your solution is effective, you must analyse the audience's needs. This means looking closely at their characteristics and making design choices based on those facts.

Key Audience Characteristics to Analyse

When planning an ICT solution, you must consider the following factors about your audience:

1. Technical Expertise and Experience

This refers to how familiar the audience is with ICT and the specific software you are using.

  • Expert Users: Can handle complex navigation, technical jargon, and detailed data. (e.g., A company accountant reading an advanced spreadsheet model.)
  • Novice Users (Beginners): Require very simple, clear instructions, minimal jargon, and intuitive navigation. (e.g., A child using an educational app.)
2. Age Range

Age impacts readability and preferred design style.

  • Younger Audience: Prefer bright colours, engaging visuals (maybe animations/videos), and larger, simpler fonts (sans-serif is usually clearer).
  • Older Audience: Often require high contrast, very large font sizes, and clear, simple navigation structures (less clutter).
3. Cultural Background

This is extremely important for respectful design, especially when publishing to the internet (a global audience).

  • Language: Is the text written in the correct language?
  • Images and Symbols: Certain colours or images can have different meanings or even be offensive in different cultures. For example, some hand gestures are acceptable in one country but rude in another.
  • Date/Time/Currency Formats: Ensure numerical data is formatted according to regional standards (e.g., $1,000.00 in the US vs. 1.000,00€ in parts of Europe.)
4. Accessibility Needs

Can the solution be used by people with visual, hearing, or physical impairments?

  • Visual Impairment: Need screen-reader compatibility (use of alternative text for images), high contrast colours, and sufficient text size.
  • Hearing Impairment: Need subtitles or transcripts for video or audio content.
Quick Review Tip: C A L M

To remember the key factors when analysing needs, think of C A L M:
Cultural Background
Age & Accessibility
Language
Mode of Delivery (e.g., printed document vs. website screen)

Don't worry if this seems tricky at first! In your practical papers, the audience is often stated clearly (e.g., 'The General Public' or 'Company Directors'), and you just need to apply these principles.

Section 3: Planning Responsive and Respectful Solutions

Once you have analysed the audience, you must ensure your final ICT solution is both responsive and respectful to those needs.

3.1 Responsive Solutions (Meeting Functional Needs)

A responsive solution means the product is tailored technically and functionally to meet the audience's identified needs. It works well and is easy to use for them.

Examples of Responsiveness:
  • Design: If the audience is visually impaired, the design must use large, bold fonts and high-contrast colours (e.g., black text on white or yellow background).
  • Navigation: If the audience is unfamiliar with the internet, the navigation links should be labelled simply (e.g., 'Go Home' instead of 'Index').
  • File Format: If the audience needs to edit the data, you would provide a spreadsheet file (like .xlsx). If they only need to view and print it, you would use a secure, universal format like PDF (Portable Document Format).
  • Jargon: Using simple, everyday language instead of highly specialised technical jargon, unless the audience consists of experts.

Did you know? Many government websites offer a high-contrast mode button specifically to be responsive to users with mild visual impairment.

3.2 Respectful Solutions (Meeting Ethical and Cultural Needs)

A respectful solution ensures the content and tone are appropriate, ethical, and do not cause offense.

Examples of Respectfulness:
  • Tone: Using formal language when communicating with senior company directors or government bodies, but a casual, friendly tone for a young, recreational audience.
  • Image Choice: Ensuring images are culturally neutral or specifically tailored to the target region without stereotypes.
  • Confidentiality: If the solution involves data (like a database report), only showing the information relevant to that specific audience (e.g., an employee should not see the salary data of their colleagues).
  • Ethical Content: Avoiding any content that is offensive, discriminatory, or politically sensitive.

Remember: In exam situations, when asked to justify a design choice (like using a specific font or colour scheme), your justification must always refer back to the audience and purpose.
Example Justification: "I chose a sans-serif font (like Arial) and a large point size (16pt) to ensure the text is responsive to an audience of older users who may have difficulty reading smaller or more decorative text."

Quick Review: Audience Appreciation

Key Terms to Master:
  • Audience: The people who will view or use the ICT solution.
  • Purpose: The goal or objective of the ICT solution.
  • Responsive: Designing the solution to work correctly and functionally for the audience (e.g., correct file size, easy navigation).
  • Respectful: Designing the solution to be appropriate ethically, culturally, and linguistically.
  • Jargon: Specialised technical words that should be avoided when dealing with novice or general audiences.
Check Your Understanding:

If you are designing a presentation for an international sales team, you must analyse their needs. Name two things you would consider related to cultural background and why.

  1. Language and Translation: To ensure all team members understand the content.
  2. Currency Formatting: To ensure that sales figures are relevant and easily readable in their respective regions.