Information architecture reference architectures and design document creation

¶ … Architectures for Websites

Audience Definition

Earlier the team defined the target market as 18- to 45-year-old students and professionals. Throughout the following discussions greater granularity of definitions have been achieved. These specific audiences each have significantly different needs for a customizable tablet PC. All however share a common baseline of expectations that any product that includes the option of mass customization needs to allow them to also customize the user experience (Piller, Moeslein, Stotko, 2004). This is a complex yet highly respected part of managing expectations of customers; they expect products that are customizable to be flexible enough in definition and structure to meet their needs (Piller, Moeslein, Stotko, 2004). With this requirement in mind the following audiences are defined:

Academic High Performers -- this audience is most concerned about configuring their Samsung Android-powered device for very rapid 3G and 4G access, including support for advanced authentication to their favorite academic databases and research sites. This segment requires very high battery life as well as many times they are researching projects in real time in classrooms, meeting rooms where power not be available, or in outside meeting locations. This group is comprised of upper classmen and graduate students.

2. Gamer Students -- This is a very large market segment in the 18- to 24-year-old audience. The requirements in this audience include very fast processors, a very large amount of system memory, high performance graphics, and advanced touchscreen controls.

3. Power Mom -- This is the largest potential segment for the build-to-order Android tablet PC. The critical needs of this audience include the ability to multitask several schedules at once, create a series of e-mails that will coordinate children's schedules and also plan the week for the household. The configuration options for this market include crash-resistant screens, smudge-proof cases, militarized case designs for shock and vibration, and advanced real-time sync with home PC systems across secured 3G and 4G access points. The age group of this segment is 24 to 45.

4. Aspiring Executive Road Warrior- The high end of the market segments, this audience requires extensive configuration for performance and network integration to corporate IT servers. The greater the tailoring of a device to a specific system or architecture, the greater the innate value to a business (Piller, Moeslein, Stotko, 2004). This is one of the foundational elements of mass customization and one that could ensure a high gross margin level for this specific audience's device. The age group of this segment is 24 to 45.

Create Scenarios

Academic High Performers -- The story of a representative member of this audience is Evan, a graduate student in business at a local university. He is working on his dissertation, taking four classes while also being a teaching assistant. He has very little time for anything else and must compose much of the dissertation in the small blocks of time he has each day. A tablet PC configurable for these specific needs would allow him to keep working on his dissertation literally anywhere. The foundation of effective mass customization is understanding and reacting to the needs of customers in very targeted, specific product and service strategies (Holweg, Pil, 2001).

Gamer Students -- Sarah has been playing video games against her friends and group of three brothers for over a decade, and is considered to be one of the best at her small college. She routinely challenges groups of guys to Halo 4 competitions and wins within an hour or less. She recently entered college and is studying in Liberal Arts and needs a tablet PC that can scale to support her extreme gaming lifestyle but also be useful in school. Her need is for high graphics acceleration in the chipset and operating system and the ability to also use personal productivity applications for school.

Power Mom -- Pam is a very busy mom who has three kids, helps run the family refrigeration business and also helps out with local charities. She needs a militarized version of the tablet PC as her kids often drop her smartphone (three replaced in one year). She also needs to have extensive sync capability back to the main system at her house, and does a lot of photo sharing as well. She needs the most advanced image processor available to ensure the pictures will continue to be uploaded and shared without crashing the tablet.