Website Usability Study for Children's Sites
A website usability study by Interactive Media Ventures lets you know if your users are happy with your website and what their needs are. A website usability study for children's websites is just as important as doing a website usability study for mainstream or adult sites. Many websites have been including some pages or sections for kids, either as public service or to expand their market by establishing brand loyalty at such an early age. In some cases however, the principles used to guide the design of these pages were loosely based on children's stereotypical behavior but not as web surfers or users, and thus calls for a website usability study.
Website Usability Study for Kid-Centric Sites
In a website usability study conducted by website usability guru Jakob Nielsen and his group on a group of children aged six to twelve years old, kids were found to be very similar with adults as website users. They get easily confused with complicated and unclear navigation; therefore leaving the site to go somewhere more convenient. Colorful animated images and multimedia effects are attractive to children, especially because most young kids use the web for entertainment. However, if such images and effects affect ease of navigation and website usability, kids are most likely to leave. In addition, the website usability study showed that images and other animation affect download time. As in adult users, kids don't have the patience to wait. Incidentally, download time is a major issue among young users since apart from having slower Internet connections, they are most likely to have hand-me down computers with older-version software.
The website usability study also showed that children were able to successfully use such mainstream websites like Yahoo and Amazon, maybe more so than several sites targeting children. The reason behind this is the fact that these websites are committed to using designs that are both simple and in compliance with web design conventions.
So if you are selling kid's toys, baby wear, or children video games, call on IMV an ask them to conduct website usability study on your site so you know if it's kid-friendly.
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