A user needs analysis is part of the ongoing process of developing a website that will effectively meet the needs of users. This process also helps to determine the technological requirements necessary to justify these needs.

Why should I?

Users have an understanding of the actual use of a website, along with practical ideas for improvement. By undertaking a user needs analysis, agencies will have a better understanding of the goals and needs of their users and will be able to translate them into a set of requirements for the site.

There are a variety of user types or groups for each site, so it is important to identify these groups and focus on the high priority users. To justify investment, resources and time, and to inform the best practice implementation it is important to understand the needs of the users.

What should I do?

Identify a series of personas – user types who may use a site for a variety of different purposes or display a different understanding of the topic. The user groups of Australian Government sites represent a large cross-section of people. This broad spectrum needs to be captured during profiling. The categories identified are the demographics of the population, disabilities, online usage habits, slow connection speeds and/or low download limits, and obsolete equipment.

You then need to gather information (strengths and weaknesses) of the current site (for a redevelopment) and similar sites (for a new development) through a series of walkthroughs with specific tasks. Via a series of interviews, gather information on what content and functionality is deemed to be important to the users and then compare this to their actual behaviour whilst on a site.

How do I?

The first steps are to identify and categorise your target audience. Potential users cover those who use your agency’s services, people seeking information, employees, potential employees, vendors, strategic partners and various other groups.

To produce the best possible site, you must investigate the information needs of the target audience. The best way to do this is by discussing the proposed site either with people who work with the users and/or the potential users themselves. Some of the questions to ask are:

• What do you want the site to do?
• What are the information requirements?
• Issues or concerns covering specific constraints
• How would it fit in with your normal workflow or tasks?
• How technically proficient are you?
• Do you already use a similar site?
• What look and feel appeals to you?

If, for some, reason interviews are not possible, you can gain insights into what users need by extrapolating data from sources such as:

• search term use
• website usage
• website statistics on sites that cater to the same user audience.

Subjects:

• audience
• surveys
• websites