The reason we build sites is so we can communicate and interact with others and so they can communicate and interact with us.  So, with all this human-to-human interaction going on, would it be reasonable to say that we need to understand who we are communicating with, meaning our audience? I think so.

In the audience analysis, we get to know our audience so we can see how their needs, interests, and ways of interacting with sites should influence how we build our site. If you completed a Competitive Analysis, you probably have a good undrestanding of who your target audience is and what they need. This audience analysis expands on what you know and starts your requirements documentation process.

An audience analysis can be broken into two phases: audience segments and personas.