Tip #6: Put your users first

In a digital world the user is in control. Start thinking about your relationship with the arts sectors, audiences, and citizens. Then ask yourself how your digital initiative directly benefits one or more of these target groups. To achieve this, you’ll need to spend time understanding your users so that you can tailor your proposal to maximize its value to them.

For example, you could:

• Consult with your users to learn more about their pain points, needs, frustrations, or motivations;
• Research your users’ habits and practices, particularly in the digital environment;
• Conduct a study or survey of your users to gauge how much interest exists for the various actions you’re considering;
• Involve your users in the process of shaping and designing your initiative, applying principles of user-centered design and co-creation;
• Build consultative steps into every stage of your initiative to validate that your approach is useful and relevant to your users.

See descriptions of funded initiatives that already received support from the Digital Strategy Fund and consider how they put users first.

Ready to put your users first?

See how a user-centered focus is emphasized in the Digital Strategy Fund guidelines or contact a program officer.