Designing for Advanced Users
Designing for Advanced Users
In this article:
Preschoolers Are on the Internet
From pre-schools to universities, computers have become standard classroom devices. According to a report by Grunwald Associates (www.grunwald.com), more than 25 million children in the United States are currently on the Internet, three times the number of children who were online in 1997. This represents 40 percent of American children 2 to 17 years of age. In addition, the report predicts that by 2005 almost 44 million children in this age group will be using the Internet.
This ongoing exposure to and use of computers and (presumably) various software programs is fostering a growing population of users with ever-increasing computer experience. These users tend to be very comfortable using computers for accessing web sites and gathering information and are therefore very comfortable searching, navigating and reading text on computer monitors.
- Design Implications: In the future we should see the minimum level of experience continue to rise, enabling the use of more complex web site designs. If designers can expect more from their audience it should be obvious that this audience will in turn be expecting better designs from the sites they visit.