Rhyming With The Responsive: AGE Responsive.
Hello there!!
Let’s for a minute have a flash back. Yes, you got it right. I am asking you to wind back the few bygone chapters of your life.
Let me take you to your childhood. Do you remember the books you used to read as a nursery or K.G kid? If you carefully look at the books now, you will notice that the letters and fonts of the books were large, bold too, aren’t they? Do you remember the moonlit sky you first saw in your books or the rising sun while reciting the rhymes or the vast canopy comprising the twinkling stars while wondrously looking at it and dancing, the person selling big balloons? You will find vivid chromatic combination in the presentations and portrayals. Have you wondered why?
You have travelled from the Aesop’s Fables to White paper and other journals and surveys and research. Was the content same all through the same? Was the procedure, portrayal and the medium of presentation same? We have now moved from paper to paperless medium of conveying stuffs be it a child of three or a scholarly post graduate doing his research. Perhaps speaking about the concept of paperless media is getting morose and obsolete when the kid next door tells you that he needs an extra GB RAM to speed up his browsing!
Yes! There we are. Yes! I am speaking about digital exposure and access to information across borders. From desktops to laptops to tablets and cell phones, information is easily accessible via internet. Well, the next step is who access these information and how? I know the answer is ready on your tongue tip by now. Yes, it is through website and the answer for WHO is ‘we’. Again who are these “WE”?
Now, if we come to this ‘WE’, it basically encompasses all those who are digitally literate. It can be you, me , the girl yonder, the boy reading there, people seeking admission in colleges, doctors, engineers, business personnel etc.
The second diversity is they use different electronic devices and use different platforms to speak to access web related information. Well are we speaking then about Responsive Website? A Big NO. Because making a website responsive is a habit by now with all Web Developers. The trend to make website responsive is very common now.
We now actually inch ahead to another realm of sophistication in terms of rendering service through technology and understanding the needs of the users from a more empathetic level.
Let us make introspection a prelude for now to begin with.
Nature as we know is a great laboratory of diversity. No two persons or minds are alike. This infers that the needs and choices too vary, across all ages as humans.
A 7-year-old and a 70-year-old do not read the same books or wear the same clothes, so why should they be subjected to the same online experience?
So the New Benchmark and Milestone could be having an AGE-RESPONSIVE website.
WHAT IS EXACTLY AN AGE RESPONSIVE WEBSITE?
Age Responsive Website is a User Centric Design though obviously responsive but the focus is on making is user centric in want and need.
WHAT AGE RESPONSIVE INVOLVES :
Age Responsive Design is balanced to fit to serve the users based on their specific demographics such as age and their personal interests. It revolves around the following:
- Appearance of the site.
- Elements of the site.
- Interaction between various components of the site.
- Functionality of the site.
- Content that is to be displayed.
- How the users can benefit from these.
Just a few examples of what Age Responsive Design could do, include:
- bigger vs smaller font sizes and spacing.
- muted vs saturated color schemes.
- video presentations vs text explanations.
- social media sharing vs email conversion.
- expanded vs condensed navigation menus.
- typographic vs traditional content.
- Adapt content based on the user’s age.
- Provide varying content across different groups.
Each generation uses websites differently, and as such, has a different set of expectations of what constitutes a ‘good’ or ‘bad’ website. Advertisers have long been catering to these expectations in the form of online targeted ads, and web designers are already used to creating sites that automatically adapt to the screen the user is accessing them from, so could the future of a more inclusive, universally appealing World Wide Web lie in combining these two common principles to create Age Responsive Design.
In the future there will be a proliferation of metadata that will provide age-specific adaptations for websites, including the following:
- Expansion and contraction of navigation menus will be based on the user’s competency level. For beginners, stripped-down interfaces will make it more convenient for them to browse through the site or app while using the UX elements that they are already accustomed to.
- Font-related factors will become bigger and clearer for the elderly to see.
- Color schemes may automatically be altered depending on the user’s age. Younger ones will see more vibrant colors, while older users will get to see a milder color scheme.
HOW DOES THE IDEA OF AGE RESPONSIVE DESIGN WORK ?
For instance, if a child is viewing the site, then, the font, color and the other elements shall interact with them in favor to their desire while it will alter the entire appearance to please the elderly according to their preference.
So, here are the aspects of your web design that age responsive web design will be working upon:
- Font sizes and the spaces between them will vary for elders which will never be the same for kids.
- Color changes {Flashy colors are most likely ignored by elders who prefer shades of lighter colors, while, darker and brighter colors are welcome by youngsters}.
- You can expect simple navigation along with a sitemap that is provided to the elders to help them reach the point they have been hunting for without any hassles or complications. There have been situations where people abandon certain actions and leave a site if the site does not have a site map or fails to provide them with the right directions to complete an action.
- Kids love videos. It could be a fantastic idea to play videos for kids and not to play it for the elders who prefer content in the form of text rather than videos.
Being brief, all depends on how and when it is implemented and obviously who takes the first step. Having said that , it will be a step ahead in the making the website more interactive and user friendly. Let us wish that it happens soon.
