Reading...

"If you know who your target audience is, you can tailor your site’s look and feel, content, and action areas to appeal to your audience and draw them in. If you know what your site visitors want, you can use that information to mutual benefit." -- "Design Decisions vs. Audience Considerations," Ragle - Davis
This quote from Monday's reading concisely explains what the entire PW program teaches about audience. Audience is integral to creating a product, because every creation (hopefully) speaks to a certain group of people. I am tailoring my final project for the PW department when I show them my final portfolio, but more broadly I am tailoring this website for future employers. I know that my audience is interested in the work I have to showcase on the website, so of course I want to create a design that will allow that. The navigation and images have to be professional, though in my style, and easily used. As I discussed in my final project proposal, the people who will be reviewing the contents of my portfolio, out of the sphere of MSU, will most likely not be people of the arts. More specifically, government workers and lawyers. In my final project I will work to create a balance between my need to express my own style, but still conform to what is expected of me.