Audience research: analysing audience data

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OVERVIEW

This article is an extract from A Concise Guide to Researching Audiences. The Guide forms part of the Audience Research Toolkit produced Curtis+Cartwright Consulting Ltd on behalf of the Strategic Content Alliance and links to all the elements in the toolkit can be found at the end of this page.

The article is licenced under the Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.

Introduction

Concise guide to audience research

Here we deal with the issues involved in analysing and interpreting the data to address the specific research questions and build a better understanding of the audience and its interactions with the service.

The audience data must be analysed appropriately: the techniques used will depend on the type of data and the aims of the research. The data should provide evidence that can be interpreted to draw conclusions relevant to the specific objectives of the research. It is important to be sure that the data really do provide evidence for any statements you make and that you have considered all the possible interpretations of the data. Full analysis and interpretation of the data should also provide wider insights into the audience, and its behaviour and relationship with the service.

Analysing the data from audience research will be easier if the research was well planned and conducted. Many problems in analysis and interpretation can be avoided if data collection procedures are selected and implemented with the analysis in mind. Sometimes a trade-off needs to be made between simplicity, convenience and reliability of recording, and convenience and power for analysis. Paper-based data collection might be easiest to administer, but data will have to be coded and entered onto a computer before analysis.

Analysis of the data from an audience research project should improve understanding of the audience in several ways:

Answers to the specific research questions – or at least relevant evidence

New knowledge about the audience more generally

Further questions about the audience to be addressed in future work

Analysing quantitative data

Quantitative data can be analysed statistically to explore relationships between variables. For example, to answer questions such as ‘Are registered users more likely to download files from a service?’ and to uncover homogeneous segments of the audience.

Techniques include regression and correlation analysis (for defining relationships between variables) and factor and cluster analysis (to look at relationships among variables).

Potential problems with interpretation of quantitative data include:

Poor questionnaire design. Decisions about questionnaire design can have implications for the interpretation of the results, for example the exact wording of statements about satisfaction with the service could affect the proportion of the sample who appear to be content with the service

Instructions and/or responses are misunderstood. Piloting a questionnaire on a small sample or using interviewers to collect survey data can help avoid these problems

The sample of respondents is unrepresentative. Obtaining a representative sample is particularly difficult when surveys are distributed to an unknown set of potential respondents. If the sample is likely to be unrepresentative it is important to consider the implications for interpretation of the data and caveat the conclusions

Making use of qualitative data

Interpreting qualitative data is necessarily a subjective process, so if resources permit it may be worth involving more than one person in analysis and presentation of the data.

Presentations of qualitative data will usually attempt to summarise the content and import of the material, and typically include quotations from the material. For a group discussion this would usually include a judgement about variations of opinion between group members and comments on possible reasons for differences of opinion. A brief summary of the flow of discussion can be helpful to elucidate the context for the views and attitudes expressed by group members.

It is possible to code or categorise qualitative data so that quantitative techniques can be applied. Coded qualitative data can be presented in tabular or graphical format as a supplement to textual digests of the material.

Personas and user profiles

A persona is an archetype, with the personal traits, lifestyle, aspirations, beliefs, needs and goals etc typical of a segment of the audience. Personas can help to provide focus for service development work that has fairly high-level, generic objectives, eg to make the site easier to use or ‘make the site more appealing to school age children’. The process of developing a persona is often quite involved, including detailed interviews with potential users, ethnographic studies, novel activities – anything which will help to foster a good understanding of the audience.

If resources do not permit the creation of fully fledged personas, it may be possible to achieve some of the same benefits by developing user profiles – descriptions of typical users, oriented to the service under consideration and focusing on interactions with the service, needs, expectations and attitudes towards the service.

Sources of advice and guidance

The Strategic Content Alliance Audience Analysis Toolkit

This toolkit for public sector bodies, commission by the Strategic Content Alliance from Curtis and Cartwright Consulting provides a range of resources about how to undertake successful audience analysis. All may be found on the Audience pages of the Alliance blog. They include the following:

Guides

These offer an in-depth study of how to define your target audience, planning audience research, the various methods which are available for collecting research data, then analysing that data to obtain a useful model of your likely audience and continuing to use audience research to make sure your service responds to their needs effectively.

The Guide to Researching Audiences
A Concise Guide to Researching Audiences
Audience research: a visualisation chart

Case studies

The case studies offer in-depth studies of the audience analysis activities undertaken by ten public sector institutions to inform the service they provide. The case studies cover a diverse range of initiatives including the development of the BBC i-player, the Europeana project, the digitisation of the John Johnson collection and the JISC national e-books observatory project.

The Guide to Researching Audiences: Case Studies
The Guide to Researching Audiences: Illustrative Case Study

Presentations

These presentations are taken from a workshop held in July 2009 presenting the audience analysis work done for the Alliance by Curtis and Cartwright.

Audience research for practitioners
Audience research: why you should be doing it

Briefing papers

The briefing papers provide valuable summaries on audience research for different domains in the public sector, recognising that different audiences have different needs and expectations and summarising the key sources of support for each area.

Audience research for cultural sector practitioners
Audience research for people experimenting with digital media
Briefing paper: Audience research for education and research practitioners
Audience research for library and knowledge practitioners
Audience research for programme, service and research practitioners
Briefing paper: Audience research for senior managers

Harvested links to other resources

Plastics: A network to engage varied audiences with the key role played by plastics in modern society, to increase interconnectivity and brokerage between plastics collections and to share expertise in the hist [?]
Engaging Audiences Conference (26/2/2010) - Nathalie Lone Summary: Summary of Nathalie Lone`s paper, What lies beneath: the use of story and memory in audio and multi-media interpretation, presented at the Engaging Audiences Conference (26/2/2010) [?]
Engaging Audiences Conference Programme (26/2/2010): Engaging Audiences: Developing Learning Programmes and Interpretation Exploring the Theme of `Home` in Museums, Historic Houses and Heritage Settings - Conference Programme (Friday 26 February, London [?]
Engaging Audiences Conference (26/2/2010) - Patrick Phillips Summary: Summary of Patrick Phillips` paper, Historic Houses, Museums and Attractions - responding to a changing market, presented at the Histories of Home SSN`s Engaging Audiences Conference (26/2/2010) [?]
Engaging Audiences Conference (26/2/2010) - Emma Dunn Summary: Summary of Emma Dunn`s paper, Homing In: Learning and Teaching at the Geffrye, presented at the Histories of Home SSN`s Engaging Audiences Conference (26/2/2010) [?]
Engaging Audiences Conference (26/2/2010) - Joyce Wallace Summary: Summary of Joyce Wallace`s paper, Home ? a space in any time (Whose Story? outreach project), presented at the Histories of Home SSN`s Engaging Audiences Conference (26/2/2010) [?]
Engaging Audiences Conference (26/2/2010) - Ruth Clarke Summary: Summary of Ruth Clarke`s paper, National Trust in London - a journey to diversify audiences, presented at the Histories of Home SSN`s Engaging Audiences Conference (26/2/2010) [?]
Engaging Audiences Conference (26/2/2010) - Lois Stoehr Summary: Summary of Lois Stoehr`s paper, Home is Where the Stuff is, presented at the Histories of Home SSN`s Engaging Audiences Conference (26/2/2010) [?]
Culture Grid opens up UK collections online: Over one million objects from collections from museums, galleries, libraries and archives from across the UK are now accessible together online for the first time, thanks to the Culture Grid, a new [?]
Read all about it!: Find out more about the Collections Trust and how they can help you manage you collections by ordering your free copy of OpenCulture, the Collections Trust newspaper. The newspaper showcase [?]
Collect: The Collections Management Exhibition: Collect: The Collections Management Exhibition Date: 28 June 2010 Opening times: 10.00am - 4.00pm Venue: Kingsw [?]
Collections Trust strengthens support for networks: The Collections Trust has strengthened its provision of support for professional groups and networks with the appointment of Susanna Hillhouse as Networks Officer.</s [?]

[[Role::newcomer]] [[Role::strategy manager]] [[Role::policy maker]] [[Role::project manager]] [[Goal::developing]] 
[[Goal::audience]] [[Goal::deciding]] [[Goal::evaluating]] [[Level::medium]] [[Level::deep]]

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