Audience centred Web based design

A methodology is proposed for design of Web-based systems. It is argued that good design is directed towards specific audiences, and the initial step consists of identifying an audience. Three different types of audiences are identified, namely crisp and accessible, fuzzy and inaccessible, and undefined. Three different types of systems are also identified: (i) the whole system is developed from scratch; (ii) the system is a front-end to an existing legacy system; (iii) the system utilizes and displays information from multiple existing Web sites on possibly different servers. Both the audience category and the system type being developed affect the development methodology, and the different combinations are discussed in turn