Whatever kind of content you are developing, getting input and feedback from people who will use it goes a long way to ensuring that it meets their needs. Listening to users allows you to check your ideas and approach in terms of what information should be included, how it should be structured, and the language and tone that you use.

Listening to your users is even more important if your content has several audiences. Feedback provides insights into the different needs of your audiences so that you can consider these when developing the content (see Knowing your audiences for more details).

You can research and talk to users before developing the content, to inform its development. You can also test developed content with users and continue to refine the content in an iterative process. User research and testing is commonly done for online content, but you can also use it for printed publications.

This section covers:

• Collecting audience data
• Usability testing
• Using audience data.