Silver surfer market
The BBC mentioned the rising amount of silver surfers in the Internet population.
I’ve been observing the way my Dad uses the computer. He’s just turned 66. Today we find out his insurance has gone up for travelling. Asshole insurers. Anyhoo, I will just make a list of my observations, which I’ll add to if possible (feel free to add some in the comments):
- He loves silly emails from his friends with suspect looking email attachments of badly made PPTs.
- He seems a little more patient than I am with regards to loading and errors. I think he does skim pages like most other ‘surfers’ do, so he isn’t patient in that sense of reading everything.
- He has problems with image captchas. Please don’t implement them people. They suck.
- He is crap at typing. Perhaps there is room for some tool in regards to help older people type better?
- I don’t think a lot of current slick Web design appeals to older people. Sober designs like Reddit and Youtube are better, but still. I think simple social sites with room designed for fat fonts in topics that interest them, as well as me. :)
- I guess since he is so bad at typing, he is much more likely to browse than to search.