15 Examples of a Target User

John Spacey, March 26, 2023

A target user is an identified group of users that will be the focus of user experience design or analysis. This is similar to a target market for marketing or a target audience for communication. Identifying target users or multiple sets of target users is often a first step in UX design or analysis. The following are illustrative examples of criteria that are used to define target users.

Job Role The role of the user in an organization.	Department Targeting users in a particular department, business unit or team.
Customer Type Using characteristics of the customer such as loyal customers.	Lead Users Advanced or influential users.
User Needs User needs such as users who need a particular product function.	User Goals User goals such as users who use your product for business productivity.
User Preferences Things the user prefers such as simple versus powerful interfaces.	User Perceptions User perceptions of products such as users who find smartphones difficult to use.
Context of Use The environment and situation of use such as users who use a product outdoors.	User Role Different roles such as administrators or users assigned to a particular task.
Location Geographic location	Language Preferred language such as Spanish speaking users in the United States.
Demographics Demographic factors such as age.	Profession Users in a profession or occupation.
Psychographics Psychographics such as interests and attitudes.

Target users may be selected for a particular analysis such that they aren't necessarily reflective of your overall target market. As such, these terms aren't at all synonymous. Target user relates to design, user experience, user analysis and business analysis. For example, your target market may be all smartphone users but your target users for a particular analysis may be users who are over 70 years old with limited experience with smartphones.