User Centered

I was recently on the phone to my grandmother (ok, for her it was a phone, for me it was Skype). And she was again lamenting about how complicated everything about the computer is.

So, I thought I'd look for a book written for the elderly about computers. You know, this is how you turn a computer on, this is a mouse, etc. And I searched for the phrase "Internet for Grandmas"

Your search - "internet for grandmas" - did not match any documents.

Does anyone see a potential usabilty problem here? A near-future usability problem? Yes there has been discussion about the issue, yes there are people who offer courses at their local senior center. But the people who generate internet content (people like you and me, people in their teens, 20s and 30s) have never uttered the phrase online: "internet for grandmas"

Well, now I have! And I'm calling people who care about usability, people with grandmas and grandpas, to focus some attention on systems, applications, devices, screens... Designed to meet the needs of this user group. Most usability professionals would drool over such well-defined users.

So the next time I search on the phrase, "internet for grandmas," I'd better see some progress!