More evidence on the Dark Social pile

The latest report from the Nielsen Norman Group has some interesting evidence about teenagers (think transition to Higher Education and embedded attitudes) and technology (Jakob Nielsen’s Alertbox: February 1, 2013, Teenage Usability: Designing Teen-Targeted Websites).

"Our research refutes many stereotypes , including that teens:

• just want to be entertained online with graphics and multimedia,
• are supremely tech savvy,
• use smartphones for everything, and
• want everything to be social"

"Teenagers use the Internet from many devices in various environments. For our research, we focused on web usability, mainly from desktop and laptop computers. We also looked at mobile website usability and how teenagers use mobile devices."

"The bad news: Teens are not as invincible as some people think. Although teens might feel confident online, they do make mistakes and often give up quickly. Fast-moving teens are also less cautious than adults and make snap judgments; these lead to lower success....

• Teens perform worse than adults for three reasons:
• Insufficient reading skills
• Less sophisticated research strategies
• Dramatically lower levels of patience"

"Design for Smaller Screens and Poor Ergonomics"

A.J. Cann