Is you website user-friendly? Scotty Allen and Richard Littauer both come from America and have launched the service “The User is my Mom“.
Some websites may indeed seem easy to use for web professionals and experienced Internet users, but it may not be the case for beginners, among whom many are over 50. Therefore, Allen suggests to professionals and developers to have their website reviewed by his mother.
Keep your mother in mind when designing your website
Allen’s mother tutors highschoolers, enjoys hiking and quilting. She “yells at her computer”, has no idea what Twitter is and has trouble accessing minimised windows. According to Allen, websites should be designed with mothers in mind, claiming that if your mother can’t understand your website, others will struggle as well.
Scotty Allen is the co-funder of The User is my Mom, a service for web professionals to have their website reviewed by Allen’s mother.
For 75 dollars, she reviews websites and provides a report as well as a screencast. In the following video, you can see here reviewing Twitter. Scotty Allen is currently looking for other elderly reviewers.
“My mom reviews twitter.com”
This brand new service may make you smile, but many web professionals aiming for a senior audience may benefit greatly from it.
Elderly people are getting more connected on the Internet, however “Silver surfers” are not always used to NTIC. It is crucial to simplify using the Internet for the elderly.
A few statistics on seniors and using the Internet
- 80,9% of people between 50 and 64 make purchases on the Internet
- There is an increasing number of elderly people on Facebook and Twitter: the share of senior subscribers on Facebook has increased by 80% in 3 years
- 54 % des plus de 70 ans se connectent quotidiennement à Internet*
- 64% of them never get connected outside of their home
- Only 1% of 70-year-old people use the Internet to download movies and TW shows or watch streaming videos séries
- Using the Internet reduces depression rates of the elderly by 30 %
Published by the Editorial Staff on
After going over a few of the articles on your web
page, I truly appreciate your way of blogging. I book marked it to my bookmark webpage list
and will be checking back soon. Take a look
at my web site as well and tell me what you think.