Open Source Documentation Module/Who are your audiences

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This lesson will cover identifying audiences for documentation, as well as their needs in terms of language, resources and local context.

To create a design brief according to the identified audience requirements.

Participants will:

• Identify the right audiences that will interact with the documentation.
• Create a documentation design brief with the appropriate verbal and visual languages.

• “Open Hardware Makers Curriculum : Documenting for Whom?” Accessed November 4, 2026. https://curriculum.openhardware.space/articles/03-building-open-projects/docs-for-whom/
• Clarke, Tiffany, and Srikanth “Srik” Gopal. “Guide to Actor Mapping.” Fsg.Org. Accessed November 4, 2026. https://www.fsg.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Guide-to-Actor-Mapping.pdf

• UXmatters. “How to Test the Usability of Documents.” Accessed November 4, 2026. https://www.uxmatters.com/mt/archives/2020/05/how-to-test-the-usability-of-documents.php
• Schriver, Karen A. Document Design As Rhetorical Action. 1995. http://archive.org/details/documentdesignas0000kare

• XPLANE Empathy Map https://xplane.com/worksheet/empathy-map-worksheet/
• Strategyzer Customer Profile https://www.strategyzer.com/library/the-customer-profile
• Persona Canvas https://www.designabetterbusiness.tools/tools/persona-canvas
• TYPO3 Community Language & Writing Guide https://docs.typo3.org/m/typo3/writing-guide/main/en-us/step-2-brief.html