https://www.nngroup.com/articles/computer-skill-levels What Most Users Can Do If you want to target a broad consumer audience, it’s safest to assume that users’ skills are those specified for level 1. (But, remember that 14% of adults have even poorer skills, even disregarding the many who can’t use a computer at all.) To recap, level 1 skills are: - Little or no navigation required to access the information or commands required to solve the problem - Few steps and a minimal number of operators - Problem resolution requiring the respondent to apply explicit criteria only (no implicit criteria) - Few monitoring demands (e.g., having to check one’s progress toward the goal) - Identifying content and operators done through simple match (no transformation or inferences needed) - No need to contrast or integrate information Anything more complicated, and your design can only be used by people with skills at level 2 or 3, meaning that you’re down to serving 31% of the population in the United States, 35% in Japan and the UK, 37% in Canada and Singapore, and 38% in Northern Europe and Australia. Again, the international variations don’t matter much relative to the big-picture conclusion: *keep it extremely simple, or two thirds of the population can’t use your design*. (Learn more about the cognitive skills of normal people in our full-day course The Human Mind and Usability <https://www.nngroup.com/courses/human-mind/>.) Steve Lee OpenDirective http://opendirective.comReceived on Monday, 14 November 2016 10:55:39 UTC
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