Dick Stroud is the founder of 20plus30, a marketing strategy consultancy specialising in the 50 plus market. He is the UK’s leading expert on using interactive channels to communicate with the over-50s market.
Jakob Nielsen does it again. He sends me a newsletter that I cannot help reading and then blogging about.
This is not a specific 50-plus posting, but as applicable to them as any other age group. Nielsen’s research shows that on average users have time to read at most 28% of the words during an average visit; 20% is the more likely figure.
Another research study is used to provide the data for Nielsen’s conclusions Not Quite the Average: an Empirical Study of Web Use. If you don’t mind the hassle of registering you can also download this paper.
The next time you are sitting in meeting, debating if you should use word A or B remember that most people don’t give a damn because they will not read it. Creating text for web sites is more like painting pictures than crafting exquisite prose. Dick Stroud
I am a great fan of Web video. But, when it goes wrong it goes wrong big time. Chuck Nyren has posted an item about this video:
I guess the target market is supposed to be older execs, mostly Baby Boomers, who make such decisions in major companies. Or actually the target is the sales force (inside and out) hawking Vista to Boomer execs.
It is that sort of experience that makes me squirm, wriggle about in my seat and in desperation slam the stop button. Surely it is spoof? Microsoft could not have produced this, aimed at any age of audience – could they? Dick Stroud
Another age neutral posting. Last one this week - I promise.
This is an important development for UK companies. Hopefully all readers of this blog know that Google's change in policy means that consumers searching for specific brands will, for the first time, receive sponsored listings for their closest rivals.
The new rules are expected to cause the cost of paid-search advertising to rocket, forcing the UK's biggest online advertisers into conflict.
The changes, which come into effect on 5 May, have been described by the IPA as 'radical' and 'unexpected'. The body's head of digital, said: 'This unilateral move by Google shifts the goalposts for all brand owners in the UK.'
The IPA plans to call an emergency meeting with Google to ask it to delay the introduction of the strategy, which it claims will have a massive impact on offline activity as well as paid-search and online advertising. Don’t say you haven’t been warned! Dick Stroud
Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox is a fantastic newsletter about web site usability. Most times it is published I reference it on this blog – it is really worth subscribing.
Nielsen reckons that if they improved the content they could increase sales from the site fivefold. What a pity since this is one of the most amazing performance venues in New York. Dick Stroud
Google’s demographic bidding has been in beta testing for months, and was recently released to the world. It is now possible for an advertiser to target by gender and age. There are limitations inherent in demographic targeting mainly that it only applies to sites that collect demographic data on site visitors and report it to Google. So advertisers who target ads to sites like MySpace and Friendster will find the capability very useful; others, not so much.
What will be very interesting to do is compare the price people are willing to pay for consumers of differing ages. When I get the time I will conduct and experiment. Anybody already done this analysis?
These two links (link1link2) tell you all you need to know about the subject. Dick Stroud
My favourite Web usability guru, Jakob Nielsen, has published a fascinating article about the impact of ageing on the way people use the Web. Do make sure you read the full article.
This is a summary of the article’s conclusions.
Between the ages of 25 and 60, the time users need to complete web site tasks increases by 0.8% per year.
I suspect this is a sentence that you are going to read time and time again.
This means a 40-year-old user will take 8% longer than a 30-year-old to accomplish the same task. And a 50-year-old user will require an additional 8% more time. Note this increase is linear, not exponential.
This degradation is mostly because as people age they spend more time per page, but also because of navigation difficulties.
This finding is statistically significant at the 5% level, given the 61 users in his study.
Another of Nielsen’s conclusions is that individual differences swamp age-related difference in the 25- to 60-year-old group. Users are extraordinarily variable in their use of web sites.
He has something he calls a 5-5-5 rule for the way users complete web site tasks: • the slowest 5% of users are • about 5 times as slow • as the fastest 5% of users, Thus the slowest users need 400% more time to perform the same tasks. The 0.8% difference caused by each year of aging pales in comparison. A fast 50-year-old will beat a slow 30-year-old every day — by several hundred percent.
Because of cognitive ageing older users need more time to understand pages, scan the text, and extract the information. A smaller — but still substantial — problem is that people have more trouble navigating websites as they age.
The human ageing process causes erosion of cognitive resources, loss of visual acuity, degraded reaction times, and reduced dexterity. People need more time for the same mental operations; they have less memory capacity and take longer to process the same perceptual input.
All of these elements of human performance impact the speed with which users can get something done on a web site.
Because the Web is relatively new, a 50-year-old might have started using it at age 40, whereas a 30-year-old might have started at age 20. In contrast, by 2050, a 50-year-old will have used the Web since age 5, and thus benefit from 45 years of experience. Nielsen believes that this added web experience might eventually allow older users to catch up and somewhat reduce the 0.8% gap – his guess is that the age penalty will drop to around 0.5%/year. I think he would agree that this is a "finger in the air" guess.
Nielsen has already published research that shows that the 75+ are 74% slower using websites than mainstream users. A typical senior at 75 is 40 years older than a typical mainstream user at 35, so 0.8% per year should correspond to only a 32% slow-down for seniors.
He believes the difference are explained by the fact that aging starts early, but accelerates drastically around 60 years of age, and especially after 70 years. Curves of cognitive, perceptual, and motor-skill decline have a hockey-stick shape not a straight line.
So his 0.8%/year slow-down is valid only for the mainstream period of 25–60 years of age. For older users, performance declines faster.
Nielsen’s bottom line is that you need separate guidelines for seniors and truly young users; you don't need different usability guidelines for your 50-year-old vs. 30-year-old customers. Finally he advises that when doing user testing, make sure to include test participants across the entire age range you're targeting and don't believe everything your 25-year old Web designers tell you about "what's easy" — especially if your target audience is 50-year-old corporate managers!
It would be good use of your time to read the original article. Dick Stroud
Yahoo has launched a site for women between ages 25 and 54, calling it a key demographic underserved by current Yahoo properties. The site is called Shine.
Yahoo said advertisers in consumer-packaged goods, retail and pharmaceuticals have requested more ways to reach those consumers.
I am amazed that a company that should know better is still using age based segmentation rather than lifestyle. Maybe this helps explains Yahoo’s precarious position? Dick Stroud
Webcredible has an excellent article about the benefits and problems of using AJAX.
AJAX or Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (don’t be put off by the techno speak) is a way of using existing technologies to create highly interactive web applications. AJAX allows portions of the page to be updated without having to refresh and reload the entire page.
The advantages It can create drop down menus that change depending on what the user has keyed. It can create things like drag and drop sliders. It gives the web designer a new range of ways of making the user's experience more interesting and effective.
The potential problems For people that use software that ‘reads’ the screen it can cause real hassles since most of them only react when a web page is changed. With AJAX the page does not necessarily refresh.
Users with a screen magnifier might not notice changes that have occurred outside the areas they're interacting with. They can therefore miss out on important information especially if the changed content takes place above their current location on the page.
I think the biggest problem is that users, who are not that web literate, will not know how to use the new features it enables. In fact they might end up being confused rather than assisted by them.
The article makes some sensible recommendations:
Inform users early in the page that dynamic updates will occur
Highlight the areas that have been updated
In case of an advanced AJAX application, consider providing an HTML alternative.
Clearly AJAX is here to stay and is a great tool for providing improved web site functionality. Just remember that it has some downsides that affect the 50-plus. Dick Stroud
Yet another ‘lifestyle magazine’ of the Boomer. This one is called Sexy Boomer and proudly proclaims: “Being a sexy boomer is a choice - a choice about how you live your life as a baby boomer.” The lead article is called: “15 great web sites for the baby boomer generation”. I know for sure that three of these sites are on their last legs. Let’s hope that Sexy Boomer doesn’t make it number four. Dick Stroud
According to the ceo of Match.com (in this article in Forbes) there are about 92 million single people in the U.S. - about 3 million of them pay a fee to an Internet-based dating service for access to a pool of possible mates. That’s a lot.
Is there much of a difference in age range of people who use online dating? Not really, according to Match.com.
You don't really see an age range difference by market. Our sweet spot is people in their late 20s into their mid to late 30s. That's really true in most markets that we're in. In the U.S., the 50-plus is our fastest-growing segment. That's starting to take off in some of our international markets. Typically, in those markets what you find is that they lag 18 months behind the U.S. in category adoption.
I suspect that the uptake of 50-plus online dating in the UK is as big, if not bigger, than in the US. Dick Stroud
The latest edition looks at the argument that you don’t have to worry about Web usability because years of Web usage have provided most users with coping techniques to get around poor design.
Nielsen’s research shows: “Users now do basic operations with confidence and perform with skill on sites they use often. But when users try new sites, well-known usability problems still cause failures.”
What is terrifying about his findings is that the research sample was intentionally biased to the more literate Web users. The results would be even worse for people with low levels of Internet literacy.
Many of the solutions that Nielsen proposes are so basic that it is impossible to believe companies are still making such basic mistakes. Believe me they are. And believe me they are still making the same mistakes about not making sites “50-plus friendly”. Dick Stroud
A report, commissioned by JISC and the British Library, counters the common assumption that the ‘Google Generation’ (as the report calls them) – young people born or brought up in the Internet age – are the most adept at using the web.
The research shows that although young people demonstrate an ease and familiarity with computers, they rely on the most basic search tools and do not possess the critical and analytical skills to asses the information that they find on the web.
It is a bit like saying that because an 18 year-old knows how to use an ipod means they are technology competent. All it means is that they know where to plug in the earphones and how to make the thing work. Not exactly a comprehensive measure of technology excellence.
Most young people I know, probably rightly, take the attitude I don’t care how it works as long as it does. Where older people often appear technology slow is that they keep asking questions like: “why is it called desktop” and “how does a web site know that I have visited it before” and “why is called a cookie”.
As a matter of fact: “why is it called a cookie” – “do wikis have cookies” – “when does a multiple access blog become a wiki”? Dick Stroud
Whilst looking at Mark’s new Web site (see the next post) I came across this interview with the CEO of TeeBeeDee. The venture-backed company is headed by veteran magazine publisher/media exec Robin Wolaner. Twenty years ago, she was the founding publisher of Parenting magazine. She was a senior exec at Time Inc and CNET. An interesting lady. Dick Stroud
I met Mark Miller when we were presenting at the same event in New York. At that time he had just launched 50+ Digital a consulting company to print and online clients.
Since then he has been a busy guy and has just launched a new Web site RetirementRevised, focused on retirement information needs of 50+ Americans. This is an interactive companion to Retire Smart, the weekly newspaper column he writes for Tribune Media Services.
Definitely worth visiting the new site. A nice clean design with some interesting material. Interesting to note the use of video and Mark’s intention to create his own video material. I wish him well with the new venture. Dick Stroud.
Nielsen Online published some research in late December about the age composition of the UK online market.
My big grump with Nielsen is that it continues with this daft age grouping of ‘55+’. That is about as helpful of averaging the online habits of teenagers and 5 year olds. Please Nielsen, do something about this!
What was interesting and potentially useful was a list of sites ranked by the age of user. Not many surprises but still interesting to see. Dick Stroud
The National Trust and the 50-plus are made for each other. I would think 70%+ of the NT’s membership are in the 50s if not 60s. The percentage is probably higher.
What a good idea by RIAS to team up with the NT and sponsor part of its web site to encourage walking in the English countryside. The micro site is stuffed full of downloadable routes, all containing RIAS branding. Great idea. Dick Stroud
An outfit call researchandmarkets has published a report all about the impact the choice of colours has on DM and consumer recognition of brands. The report costs nearly $400.
The publishers kindly give away one page that contains an interesting graph.
This shows the results of transferring a bricks and mortar brand to the Web. Older consumers are more capable of recognising the brand. Reason? They have had more exposure to the brand over time. Maybe a statement of the obvious but still it is an interesting bit of analysis. Dick Stroud
It shows is a widespread lack of adherence to Web usability rules by companies, in the US, marketing prescription drugs plans. You would have got the same results in Europe.
What the report does contain is a checklist of tasks for creating Web sites that will be used by people with disabilities and the old. The list is a bit dated and doesn’t cover many of the new web site construction technologies, but it is at least a start.
Alternatively you can download my checklist. It might be interesting to do a compare and contrast. Dick Stroud
Not often do you get CNET talking about technology and the 50-plus. The host of tech companies exhibiting at the recent AARP national conference prompted the publication into action.
Here are a few of the factlets/quotes that caught my eye.
"Nintendo changed our company strategy about two years ago to try to go after what we considered an expanding audience. We'll of course still market to (people) under the age of 25, but as an industry it's getting stagnant. So we set off with the DS and Wii to go after expanding from the age of 25 up to 70" (Senior vice president of marketing and corporate communications at Nintendo)
Nintendo has partnered with building firm Dell Webb to have its systems incorporated into the club houses and lounges in their over-50 communities. It's also partnered with Norwegian Cruise Lines to make Nintendo available on flat-screen TVs in the ship lounges. Now that really is interesting.
Google was present at the AARP convention, registering visitors for Gmail accounts and demonstrating how they can be customized. Microsoft was also present, giving demonstrations of Vista – poor sods. The company was also demonstrating its Xbox 360. "If you gave a new Xbox to your grandmother and grandfather and gave them the manual, they could have it set up in 10 minutes. Why do they need a DVD player and CD player and TiVo when (they've) got everything here?" (Lead software development test engineer on Microsoft's Xbox team). At long last it seems that the youth obsessed marketing of tech companies is waking up to the reality of the ageing population. Dick Stroud
The results of the biannual internet advertising spend study from the Internet Advertising Bureau, PricewaterhouseCoopers and the World Advertising Research Centre shows online advertising expenditure reaching a potential new high of £2.75 billion by the end of 2007.
The total UK advertising market grew by 3.1% during the first half of the year to £9.1 billion. Without online’s contribution, UK media expenditure would have fallen by 1.9% (or £147 million).
All forms of online advertising increased. The following shows the type, share of online advertising spend and year-on-year growth rate.
Classified advertising (21%), increased by 72% Internet display advertising (22%) - including banners, skyscrapers and rich media formats – increased by 33%. Paid-for search (44%) increased 44%.
Online spending, by the main industry categories (in priority order) are:
Over the past few of weeks I have received e-mails from a couple of new 50-plus web sites telling me of their existence.
I liked the intro I received from TheGimpyGirls.com: “a Web site of solutions for aging baby boomers, the disabled and the just plain lazy of both genders”. Definitely got my attention. The intro e-mail went on.
We, Cait & Marty, offer solid advice and a keen sense of the absurd to people with physical limitations, regardless of personal architecture.
Presently, 51 million people - that’s 18 percent of all Americans - have a disability. And the nation’s 78 million Baby Boomers are just entering their 60s - making for more Gimpy people than ever before.
If you, or a loved one, need to choose the right cane, live safer at home, garden smarter or find the best cell phone for failing eyes and ears, then The Gimpy Girls have it covered.
The Gimpy Girls - Cheerleaders for the far from physically perfect.
I have no idea how well the site will do commercially but if the approach to business is like the e-mail then it should do OK.
Passionate for Life is all about inspiring everyone to live the lives of their dreams. Our Writers and Coaches are very passionate about what they do. We hope you will find inspiration here and share your passions with us. Most of all… Live Passionately!
This is not a social networking web site but a very large collection of articles and blogs about everything from ‘Spirit’ to ‘Humor’ with a section dedicated to Baby Boomers.
Clearly somebody has put a hell of a lot of effort in creating the base of content.
I wonder if the theme of “passionate for life” is strong enough to wrap around so much content but only time will tell. I wish both sites luck. Dick Stroud
Back in August I commented about the Deloitte & Touche report call “The State of Media Democracy” and how it didn’t seem to say very much of interest. I have just discovered this chart on eMarketer that quotes data from the report about the choices of different age groups for print, online and paying for content or being forced to watch ads.
For most of the questions there doesn’t appear to be any meaningful difference between the generations. The only distinct trend is the preference for paying for news content rather than watching ads. Amazingly it goes in the opposite direction to what I would have guessed. The older you get the more willing you are to put up with ads. I really do find that hard to believe. Dick Stroud
Know much about widgets? You should. This account of a recent conference session is really worthwhile – interestingly one of the examples used is from eons.
RockYou, claims to be the world’s largest provider of widgets and Slide.com, a company at the forefront of the widget craze, said their portable applications netted 90 million and 134 million unique monthly page views respectively (Slide.com’s didn’t include their Facebook users).
Now what is really interesting is that when asked how many of those viewers had actually loaded the widget onto their page, the numbers dropped to about 15-20 million for RockYou, and 30 million for Slide--roughly one out of five for both companies. A big difference between page views and real user engagement. Not surprisingly this subject was a focal point of the panel's discussion.
According to panel moderator (CEO of the Facebook ad network SocialMedia) the widget "users-to-viewers" ratio was an important takeaway for all marketers in attendance. The moderator also asked the panellists to define the difference between “portable applications” and ‘widgets’ since the terms are often used simultaneously. Having read the responses I am no clearer in understanding the differences – I am more confused.
If you want a primer about widgets, in the context of the 50-plus, have a look at this page on eons.
Does anybody reading this blog have access to eye-scanning technology? If so there is a great project to do in looking at the way that older people deal with widgets compared to the young. Dick Stroud
These images are taken from Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox, August 20, 2007. They demonstrate the fact that users almost never look at anything that looks like an advertisement. I implore you to read the article.
I recently taught a course where one of the delegates had a web site festooned with ads that were all links related to the company’s own business but put onto the site to “look like ads”.
I pointed out as clearly and politely as I could that the first things she should do when back in the office is to get the things removed but I would take a large wager that they are still there in 6 months time.
For ages Nielsen has pointed out the way that people scan and ignore ads. My bet is this is especially true of the 50-plus. So why do people ignore, one of the few, but well researched, truths of the Web. I guess they think they look pretty – add a bit of colour to the home page. Ahh. Dick Stroud
I am normally very rude about Saga’s use the Web. In recent months they do seem as if they are getting their act together and treating the Internet as a business tool rather than as an irritant.
The company has just launched a price comparison site for car insurance called ConfidentCover.com. Seems like a good idea. I don’t want to spoil the fun too much but it would have given the venture more credibility if partner sites included Rias, esure.com and Intune. These are Saga’s main competitors in the 50-plus market. I am sure I will not be the first or last person to point out this omission. Dick Stroud
Chief Marketer has an interesting article about how to improve the copy for Web sites about Webinars.
Eyetracking is a fascinating tool since it really tells you what is going on when people use Web sites rather than what users (or the designers) think is going on.
These conclusions from the research sound pretty sensible and applicable to most other types of sites.
The first word in every headline and paragraph has vastly more impact and influence over response rates than any other words.
Replicating important words in multiple positions over the page can improve response.
Beware of using a third-column such as a vertical navigation bar or additional, unrelated offers above the fold. Landing pages with fewer click options, fewer path decisions, nearly always get far higher response rates.
Bullet points work.
Immediate calls to action (I like to call it goal centred navigation) work well.
I think this advice is as relevant (if not more so) to 50-plus Web users.
Hopefully,I will be conducting an eye tracking study using older Web users. A question for you. If you could test three things about Web page design and Web copy with an older audience what would it be? Dick Stroud
I have just stumbled upon some research by the European Interactive Advertising Association (EIAA): Silver Surfers Report (not the most original of titles).
There are lots of bits and pieces of interest in the report. This is the chart that I found the most useful. It shows the types of web sites used by the over-55s compared with the result for all ages. Notice, not that much difference. Dick Stroud
Over 2,000 US consumers were contacted by the Harrison Group. Unfortunately, the analysis is done using the old fashioned segment definitions. Just to remind you: Millennials (ages 13-24) and Matures (61-75). When are we going to bury these useless age groupings once and fall!
Most of the ‘highlights’ are motherhood statements. Here are some stats for your presentations
40% all survey respondents are into user generated content (editing movies, music and photos) (25% of all Matures and 56% of all Millennials).
Printed magazines seem to be popular with all generations (72% enjoy reading magazines over finding the same information online)
And that is about it. Seems very little useful stuff from interviewing 2000 people. Dick Stroud
This is an age-neutral blog posting about a couple of bits of research I have just read about the dynamics of Web advertising.
The first research study is from the University of Kentucky's School of Journalism and Telecommunications and claims that just seeing an ad on a Web page can be remembered and doesn't rely on the ad being clicked. The full article is on the Technology Review web site.
It appears that when we view Web ads we store the information in two different types of memory: explicit and implicit. Explicit memory involves facts learned through conscious interaction, while implicit memory involves unconscious retention.
Explicitly remembered information includes ad slogans, product benefits and Web site addresses.
Implicit memory comes into play when external stimuli trigger concepts (i.e. developing an unconscious affinity for a certain brand despite not knowing specific facts about it)
The research showed that people who paid attention to a banner advertisement were more likely than those who didn't to recall whole words and facts from the ad (i.e. those in explicit memory). However, all ads had the same level of impact in the unconscious explicit memory, whether or not they'd been clicked.
Having written these words it sound to me like the research has stated the obvious.
An article that offers some more tangible insights is appears on the WARC Web site. Sorry it subscription only. A survey of 900 people was conducted by Nielsen/NetRatings.
People were asked what action they would take to an online advertisement for holidays or flights. Assuming they did something, would they click on the ad, do a search or go directly to the advertiser's website?
Only 26% of people said they would click on the banner ad.
The most popular response was to do a search, either for the advertiser's name (26%) or for a general term related to the advertisement (31%).
This means that more than twice as many people are potentially being driven to a search engine by banner advertising than are clicking directly on the banner itself. Now that is an interesting result.
It gets even more interesting, since the advertising also prompts a large numbers to go directly to the company’s Web site (29% of people told us they would go straight to an advertiser's website by typing in a URL – they figure rises to 38% for experienced travellers taking three or more major holidays per year).
The explanation for the behaviour seems to be .
Web activity is very much task-driven. When clicking on a banner gets in the way of completing the task the majority of people prefer to make a mental (or physical) note to follow up on the advertising after they have completed their task.
Both of these bits of research must be music to ears of companies selling banner inventory. You can just hear them saying: “forget all this nonsense about click-through rates they don’t matter”. Maybe they are right? Dick Stroud
The founding editor of the financial news portal MarketWatch (Tom Murphy) has launched a second news venture, targeting Boomers. Called RedwoodAge.com it is a news site with blogs and contributed articles.
Mr Murphy is quoted as saying: “People over 40 don’t really care at all about the Paris and Lindsay stories; we care much more about other things, like the war situation, education and health care issues.” I suspect that might be a bit of generalisation!
The article says that is goal is to: “create an online network that links timely national and international stories with issues that connect to the baby boomer bloc, such as ways of dealing with recurring bouts of breast cancer for women older than 40, or investment advice for boomers dealing with the recent stock market fluctuations”. Phew, sounds like a laugh a minute..…
Most of news comes from wire services but this is extended with user comments and a few blogs and contributed articles.
I reckon it looks pretty good. It is a news site with a particular take on the news (to a Brit it looks the sort of place that any respectable Democrat would be happy to be seen). The question is this: “does it offer me enough value, over and above the main news sites? Do I really want me news to be pre-filtered?
I am not sure. I guess it depends on the quality of the comments and blogs.
This is a news focused site with a sprinkling of networking. It will be interesting to see how it does. Dick Stroud
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