Design for Your Audience Besides defining the purpose for your Web site early on, you also need to define your audience. "The more specifically you can catalogue the needs of the people reading your Web pages," writes Rick Levine, developer of the Sun Microsystems Guide to Web Style, "the better you'll be able to meet those needs."   Ask yourself the question: What problem is my reader trying to solve?   By examining your audience, you can determine how much prior knowledge its members have of your subject and consequently, how much background information you need to provide and whether you need to define your terminology.   Levine also suggests trying to accommodate people with a wide range of viewing capabilities, including those with text-only browsers on slow links. If you plan to use elaborate formatting tools such as tables, you should realize the consequences of doing so. To oblige all of your readers, for instance, you might need to create a version that does not use these features.   According to Jakob Nielsen, a former usability engineer at Sun Microsystems, to create a user-oriented Web site "you start with the users." Although his advice sounds obvious, most people do not follow it. "Instead, they look at the Web as an opportunity to accomplish some goal of their organization," Nielsen continues. "But that will only take you so far. If you are going to create a golf site, for instance, first find out what golfers want." More Expert Advice:    "Learn and think about your audience, then learn and think about computers, then think again about your audience." (Erik Adigard, former design director at HotWired.)    "You have three seconds to convince a user not to use the Back button. Three seconds. So, get something on the screen immediately, and make it really interesting." (Jeffrey Veen, executive interface director at HotWired.) Next: Create Useful Links Intro / Purpose / Useful Links / Text & Page Length Fonts & Text Formatting / Graphics / Navigation / Quality / Advice Sources / Other Sites / Text-Only Comments? Please email us: Alysson or Orly Last Updated: May 2, 2001