[ubuntu-art] Who is our target audience?

[Troy James Sobotka]

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Thorsten Wilms wrote:
> Having a clearly defined target audience would be of advantage. But I
> have to say that during my industrial design studies, this part was
> mostly guesswork. 

Then you didn't go to a very good school or for long enough.

> We defined a number of users and thought about their
> needs and wants. That's better than having no structured base at all.
> For an operating system environment, the target audience can be very
> diverse. Even if we got to know (as opposed to just assume) that one
> important fraction of the audience is mothers between 40 and 50, who
> mainly browse the web, use email and do a little office work ...
> what exactly would that tell us about the style to go for, the means of
> communication to express what we want to say?

You are completely missing the point here.  You can both define
a 'desired' audience or cater to your existing audience if they
are different groups.

Apple has a disproportionate number of artists and designers
under their umbrella -- why?  Because they have constantly
catered to the needs of that group and treated them as
'important'.  Automobile designers also must carefully
focus on how they present a product -- a rugged ATV styled
truck needs to be attractive to the quotient that is going
to purchase it and emotionally invest in the success of the
product.

The point of choosing an audience is not exactly as murky as you
wish to paint it.  It is perhaps one of the most valuable discussions
this list has _ever_ seen.

Unfortunately, in the end, the default installations presence
and audience are outside of the scope of our realm and lays
in the hands of the higher ups.

Sincerely,
TJS
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