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April 25, 2005
Make money on the Web: patronise your readers!
The Wall Street Journal's Technology round-up carries a story [PAY WALL] on a survey by the Nielsen Norman Group that probably makes a lot of adults feel better by suggesting that teenagers aren't the techno-whizzes everyone thinks they are. Among other failings, they can complete "perfectly feasible" tasks on a Web site only 55% of the time.
The rest of the time, like a lot of adults, they give up, says the firm co-founded by Web interface expert Jakob Nielson and Donald Norman, former Apple demi-God, and author of some pretty interesting books on user-interface like Turn Signals are the Facial Expressions of Automobiles, and Things That Make Us Smart.
Other observers [including Bleeding Edge] dispute the findings. Jack Myers, editor and publisher of the Jack Myers Report, a New York-based publication for the media and advertisement industries, suggests that teenagers are pretty damned smart, and have been away ahead of adults in things like Instant Messaging and mobile phones. We're not sure if the Wall St Journal has ever spent any time watching teenagers play computer games, but having done so, Bleeding Edge is inclined to the view that their problem-solving abilities are WAY ahead of the average adult's. Also, they tend not to faint at the idea of trouble-shooting a dead PC.
But having accepted the Nielsen Norman thesis, they have the following advice for retailers hoping to sneak up on these teenagers when they're out on the Web, and sell them things:
Web sites need to consider traits of the average teen - lack of patience, short attention span, image consciousness and a lack of literary sophistication - in designing a site's look and functions.
In a reflection of one of the historic homilies of the newsroom - write for an average age of about 10 - Jakob Nielsen suggests making text "fast and easy".
Ideally, you want a reading level one or two grade levels below the age of your actual target audience so that you accommodate the weaker readers in the group. In general, though, shorter words and sentences are better.
Sounds like the usual formula business types have in mind when they use the term "interactivity" - pop in a Buy button. And who knows, maybe they might be more susceptible to spilling cash than the average user, given that according to Rob Callender, trends director at market research firm Teenage Research Unlimited, 49% of teenage males and 41% of teenage females have shopped online, dropping $82 on the average e-shopping trip last year.
Callender's view is that teenagers like information in "frenetic little bits." We suspect adults might find it a little more difficult to navigate the same sites as teenagers in future if retailers accept his advice: "They don't like you to speak in complete sentences."
Nielsen Norman recommends simplified site navigation and a prominent search box to limit the need for instructions. The study praises Pepsi.com, for example, for its clearly labeled boxes that make it easy for users to understand what clicking each box will do. That might help the adults too.
Posted by cw at April 25, 2005 01:02 PM
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