Target Audience Survey

It is important to gain an insight from the target audience in the early stages of the project to ensure that the product is fit for purpose. I composed a questionnaire that aimed to discover how the sample of participants rate eLearning from previous experience and if bitesize/mobile learning is something that they would benefit from. It was imperative to target the questionnaire at people who are in a workplace environment. To ensure it was distributed to the correct demographic, I had a contact at Aviva's office in Sheffield in which the questionnaire was sent out in which I received 49 responses.

Firstly, I thought it would be intriguing to see what style of learning was most popular. As you can see from the results in fig. 1, just under 80% of the participants preferred a visual style of learning. I will therefore ensure that the functionally of SmartByte includes visual elements as well as having an aesthetically pleasing design. 

(Fig. 1)

With SmartByte being mobile exclusive, it was relevant to ask which device is used most on a daily basis. The result of this question would prove to be imperative as anything other then mobile would have had a negative impact on my product. As predicted, the majority with around 67% stated mobile (see fig. 2). This shows that mobiles are now seen as a necessity and just focussing on a mobile application could prove to be successful.

(Fig. 2)

In order to progress with the questions regarding mobile eLearning, it was important to gain an insight of how many of the participants have used standard eLearning. As you can see from fig. 3, the majority with 42 out of the 49 participants completing an eLearning course at some point. This is a suitable figure to be able to analyse their outlook on mobile learning but to also get a blanked view from the participants who have done eLearning before, even if it is a minority. 

(Fig. 3)

To further the research, I decided to include a question that would show how many of the participants have used a mobile device for eLearning. Again, with an outstanding result with 37 out of 49 saying 'no' (fig. 4). This is positive feedback for SmartByte as it indicates that eLearning has not really been targeted for the mobile market.

(Fig. 4)

Finally, to target SmartByte's USP of bitesize learning, I asked that participants if they believe bitesize content is sufficient to learn from. With 32 participants agreeing that bitesize content is sufficient, this highlights that smaller amounts of context over more pages, screen, cards etc. is a preferred style learning (fig. 5). I do also need to take into consideration the group of participants who selected 'depends on the topic'. I included this as an option as I believe some topics require lengthy explanation due to its complexity.

(Fig. 5)

In conclusion, this has been a very positive form of testing and evaluation and sets the product initiation in a positive manner. I will therefor continue to pursue this idea of mobile learning with bitesize content.