But many of these persons can hardly operate the mouse, let alone join social networking communities. They are being left out. Some of them don’t care much, given that they’ve been around long enough to have managed pretty well without those things. However, computers, the internet and the world wide web has entered the mainstream so it has got the generation of the 50’s curious. Just what are those people doing in front of their laptops or punching away at their Blackberry’s all the time, they wonder.
The generation of the 50’s does not know – and wants to learn. Do not make the mistake of looking only in the capitals of the world and the top branches of business. Those people had to learn how to operate a computer and use the web. I am mostly referring to those who never learned because they didn’t have to. To them computers, PDA’s and other gadgets are devices that have become familiar yet no less inscrutable. Their interfaces require a prior acquaintance that younger generations take for granted and cannot understand why someone wouldn’t “get it”. Right there you have an emerging market that its satisfaction will actually achieve a worthy cause: making the generation of the 50’s part of the 21st century by helping them become proficient in the tools that allow for world wide communication, knowledge exchange and co-operation.
To make it easier for the generation of the 50′s to enter the computer age interfaces should become more intuitive. That doesn’t mean making them any less efficient or watering them down. It means making them better. Advances towards that direction are already on the way with pioneers like Jeff Han creating the novel hardware that will enable the interface of the future. Take a sneak peak here:
As Han says in his presentation in the past we had to adapt ourselves to technology now we can make technology adapt to us. By making things more intuitive to a wider margin of people we not only give those people the opportunity to participate in the developments of the 21st century but we also widen the online market by adding another demographic category.
