Kids' Corner: Website Usability for Children
Jakob Nielsen,
Alertbox,
Apr 15, 2002
Despite what Nielsen claims, adding 16 people from Isreal to the American test group does not "broaden the international applicability" of the study. That said, the findings in this report on web usability for children are notable. Most of it is expected: children prefer simple and straightforward navigation and enjoy multimedia. They don't scroll but they were willing to read instructions. Most significant, though, is the finding that children cannot distinguish between content and advertising. "On the contrary, to kids, ads are just one more content source. If a banner contains a popular character or something that looks like a cool game, they'll click it. Pokémon, here we come. (Kids clicked on Pokémon characters even though they were simply featured in banner ads for other products, rather than as links to a Pokémon site.)" This should those thinking of adding advertising to educational sites pause for thought.
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