The novice writer, he argues, has a "natural tendency ... to think primarily of
himself—hence to write primarily for himself."
One of my writing professors had us write a description of our target audience as part of the heading of each essay we wrote to try to help prevent us from doing this.
It's a danger not just when you're writing, but when you're doing any kind of design. I think it's very hard to be a good designer without being able to understand how different audiences are going to see and interact with your work.
It's especially an issue in web/web application design when you're designing for people that aren't at all tech savvy. Besides being very important if you're trying to reach a broader market, it's amazingly gratifying to hear someone who self-describes as "terrified of computers" tell you about how they learned to use your webapp in 5 minutes.
It's a danger not just when you're writing, but when you're doing any kind of design. I think it's very hard to be a good designer without being able to understand how different audiences are going to see and interact with your work.
It's especially an issue in web/web application design when you're designing for people that aren't at all tech savvy. Besides being very important if you're trying to reach a broader market, it's amazingly gratifying to hear someone who self-describes as "terrified of computers" tell you about how they learned to use your webapp in 5 minutes.