Ever since Aristotle defined three kinds of rhetoric on the basis of the three kinds of audiences a speaker can address, the concept of audience has become a permanent part of rhetorical theory. Although we have come a long way from the Greek and Roman orators, we are not so far from their tradition. We still perform market surveys and usability studies to determine the correct audience for our software product, and we often begin our documentation plans with a statement about the intended audience for this Help system. But how close to the truth are we when we choose our audience?
Today, technical writing addresses a very diverse audience. We cannot assume that all our users will share the same cultural history, grow up in our social class, attend the same schools, or even share our native language. Even in an English-speaking market, users vary widely in age, experience, computer expertise, education, and interest. They also bring different vocabularies, expectations, cultural backgrounds, and habits to bear.
Your task as Help designers is to explain complex and technical procedures to a diverse audience. As our products reach into international markets, these problems multiply. Thus, the challenge to provide effective Help information to an increasingly diverse audience becomes greater each day.
Despite the difficulties of identifying a target audience, you must still make some assumptions about the people who will use your Help system. Designing Help files requires that you understand your intended audience and anticipate how they will use your information. User-interface designers have spent years analyzing the traits of users and classifying users into various categories. For example, one way to classify users is by identifying their computer skills.
Such schemes may work well for research and conceptual design, but they are hard to apply in practice. In the real world, these schemes may not hold as well because real users tend to overlap two or more categories that the researcher defines. However, this information is still useful because the user’s background often determines what kind of information you make available in your Help system and how you present the information.
The following table shows the most common ways to categorize user expertise.
| User | Background |
| Novice | Knows little about computers, little or nothing about your application, and is new to Windows. Novice users are enthusiastic but are afraid to make mistakes. They have trouble getting started, not knowing what is important and what isn’t. Novices also lack an understanding of basic skills and terminology. They usually try Help but may be intimidated by its features. |
| Intermediate | Has some knowledge of computers, has mastered the basics of an application or a specific area, and has a basic understanding of Windows. Intermediate users make errors but can overcome most through trial and error. They refer to documentation frequently to find answers but lack a complete understanding of most operations. They know where to find Help and are familiar with its basic features. |
| Expert | Completely familiar with computer operations, has a good understanding of MS-DOS, and has extensive experience with Windows. Expert, or “power,” users thoroughly understand how to use the product. They prefer shortcuts and alternative ways of doing things. They generally use Help only to look up specific information but are comfortable with Help when they do use it. |
Keep in mind that these descriptions are very broad and serve only as a method to compare categories of real users. Also, a particular user is likely to have various levels of knowledge and expertise. For example, the expert in word processors may have no experience using spreadsheets, and the Windows novice may be an MS-DOS expert. When designing the information for your Help file, it may be helpful to work out a more precise description of the target audience.