Target audience research

Questionnaires

These are the three questionnaires that I created. I did this so I could carry out my own research to see what people would want to see from my magazine. The first questionnaire that you can see is the front cover questionnaire. I decided that it would be best to ask closed questions as opposed to open questions. This was because it would give me the more quantitative data that I am looking for. I have included images of what style my pages could be, so that I can see which style the majority of people prefer.

This is the questionnaire for the contents page. These questions have the same format as the previous questions in the way that they are closed questions.

This is the double page spread questionnaire. This like the other two questionnaires, follows the same format as the others.

                                                                                                           

Results of the Questionnaires

Below are the results of the questionnaire. I asked a total of 20 people and I have put the result in a percentage value. Here you can see clearly what people think of my ideas and how my overall design of the magazine will be affected. I have chosen to put my evidence in a pie chart because I think that it is one of the clearest ways to see the results.

From this pie chart, it is quite clear to see that all of the 20 people that were questioned think that the main image should take up the majority of the front cover. When it comes to making my actual cover, I will include this into my design because my target audience believe this is the best thing to do. Not only this, but I think that the best way to have the main image on the page, is to have it as large as possible.

The result of this question was that 13 people thought that it would be a good idea to have the same colours used on the page, throughout the magazine. This would bring a sense of continuity to the magazine. As my target audience think that this is a good idea to have incorporated in the design, I feel that I should comply with what my target want.  

This set of results show that there was a divide in the view of people. It shows that there are 9 people who think that the name of the magazine should be placed either in the middle of the page or in the top left of it. So from my research, my target audience couldn't come to a decision on where to place the name. Because of this, I think that I am going to choose what I want, which is to have it placed in the middle of the page. This is because I personally feel, that having it placed in the middle, would make it look much better overall than in the top left, and allows the name of the magazine to stand out more.

This graph shows how many cover lines people think is too much for the page. As the number which the majority of people have come up with is 6, it shows that they believe that it would take up too much of the page. When it comes to making my design, I am going to follow with what my target audience think. This is because when looking at other magazines, they have roughly about 6 on the front cover. So by having the same number as competitors, it means that the magazine isn't going to look stupid.

This result shows that 15 of the 20 people who I asked, believe that the cover lines should not go over the image. I agree with those 15 people and I am going to include this result in my design of the cover. This is because I think that by not having them placed over the image, allows the image to stand out greater, and also adds a level to the magazine in the way that there looks like a background, foreground and middle to the page. 

The target audience decided that the magazine that they preferred was Vibe with 11 people saying that they liked it. Because of this number, it shows that a majority of people like the layout of the magazine. I will therefore try and mimic the style of Vibe's front cover to appeal to most of my target audience.

The result of this question shows that the target audience prefer the pink, blue and white colour scheme. Although it wasn't the majority of people who chose it at 9 people, but the fact that it beat the other colour schemes by 3 votes shows that it appeals to more people. This result is probably down to the fact that these colours were included in the Vibe magazine. I am going to include these colours in the making of my magazine as it is liked by public demand.

This result shows that 17 people think that there should be a continuation of the colour scheme from the cover page to the contents page. I agree with the majority of my target audience and for this reason, I will make sure that the colour is the same on both of the pages.

As you can see, 19 people wouldn't be put off if there was more colours that were dominated than others. This means that when it comes to making the pages, that I can choose whichever colours I want as people wont be put off by them. 

The result from this question is that 12 people of my target audience think that 3 images would be enough for the contents page. As the majority of people think that the images should be between 2 and 4 images, I am going to make sure that I consider this when it comes to making this page, satisfying the majority.

This question shows that three quarters of my target audience who were questioned would rather see sans serif used. I am going to comply with this because I think that the sans serif font is less formal and is more appealing to a younger audience, and as my target audience is of the age of 16 - 24 years old, this fits perfectly.

This set of results show that the target audience would prefer to see whoever is headlining the magazine on the contents page, with 18 people saying yes. Because I agree with the result, I  am going to include this on my page, as I think that it will not only add a sense of continuity to the page, but also to show off the headliner. 

This result shows that the majority of people think that 5 stories would be enough to show on the page, but there is a reasonably sized proportion that think that 6 stories wold be enough. Although the majority do say 5 stories would be enough, I am going to go along with the second largest amount of people, and go with 6. This is because I think that this number would fill up the page better and work well with the number of images that would be included on the page.   

This graph shows that the there is a vast majority of people who would rather see my contents page look like the one from Vibe. There is nobody who likes the style used in Mojo and Q. This shows me that I should make my contents page as close as I can to the Vibe style so that the target audience are as happy as possible.

The result of this question tells me that people think that 6 images is too many to have included on the double page spread. I also am taking into consideration the fact that a high proportion also think that 5 images is too many. Because of this, I think that the best number to use on the page would be 4 because of the fact that over half of the target audience think that a higher number would be too many for the page.

As this result shows, nearly all of the people that were asked think that if I was to take a quote from the article, that it should be written in bold. I also agree with this because I think it adds to the look of it and makes it look a real article as this feature is used in professional spreads. As a result of this, I will therefore use it.

As you can see from this graph, most of the people that I asked think that the images should be placed down the middle of the page. However, I think that the images might be best placed on one page or down the side of the page, so because of this, I am going to try and incorporate as many of these three things without it looking cheap and awful. 

I agree with the 90% of the target audience that I asked. I also think that the image should stand out of the page so I am going to include this on my magazine definitely.

This final result shows me that there is a split of my target audience. This is because there is the same number of people who like the Solange double page spread and the Lily Allen. Because of this, I think that the decision should be made by me. I therefore think that the style of double spread that I should try and replicate is the Solange style. I think that this is the best style as it is clear and concise.