Characterizing Audience By Age
Selected Web sites
The Web sites examined in this paper are both linked to the web site http://www.kidshealth.org/index.html. From the main index, users can select either the Parents site, Kids site or Teens site, by clicking on the appropriate picture. (See Figure 1 below.) This analysis will review the Parents site and the Kids site.
Figure 1: Home page for kidshealth.org
Parents site
Overview of Web site Elements
The home page of the Parents site for kidshealth.org (http://www.kidshealth.org/parent/) contains:
§ Interactive menu; when mouse pointer hovers over a menu item, it displays the description in a different color. (See Figures 2&3 below.) This menu becomes a left-hand navigation pane once the site is entered.
§ Scrolling visual menu (the hyperlinked pictures on the bottom scroll at moderate speed from right to left).
§ Clickable pictures and text to articles and information about children’s health issues.
§ Search box.
§ “What’s new for parents” segment for news that may affect parents and kids.
Figure 2: Home page menu without item selected.
Figure 3: Home page menu with mouse hovered over Positive Parenting.
Web pages within the site contain text articles with pictures, hyperlinks and even audio links to pronounce words that may not be familiar to parents. The example in Figure 4 below. shows what displays when the mouse hovers over the word apnea. The word is phonetically spelled and users can click the audio button to hear the word.
Figure 4: Phonetic spelling and audio file for unfamiliar words.
Some articles contain graphical links to “instruction sheets.” For example, the page about egg allergies contains colorful links to printable sheets for Allergic Reactions Instructions and Foods to Avoid, but they are mostly text-based. Instruction sheets are more graphical and colorful, as shown in the example on Broken Bones in Figure 5 below.
Figure 5: Instruction sheet example.
Navigation includes throughout the site includes:
§ Left-hand navigation menu that appears at all times, making it easier to navigate.
§ Right-hand tabbed navigation when viewing articles to link readers to the article, related articles and additional resources. The placement of these tabs is very helpful because the articles can be very long, so links to these items at the end would have a greater chance of not being seen. These tabs appear at the top and are easy to see at the beginning.
§ Search box.
§ Navigational links that appear at the top of the page to show the user the categories that the current article is nested in. In Figure 4 above, the reader of the Apnea article can see the organization Kids Health > Parents > General Health > Your Kid’s Sleep.
§ Links to other kidshealth.org site pages (Home, Parents, Kids, Teens)
Learning Styles for Parents site
§ As many internet sites do, the Parents site appeals to the verbal/visual learner. Through its interactive menus that show descriptions on the home page, and scrolling picture menus it adds some interactivity.
§ There are graphics and pictures on the site, but I would have expected more charts and graphics of the human body in some of the articles to help illustrate information. In this way, the site doesn’t appeal to the visual/nonverbal learner.
§ The user cannot manipulate the pages in any way, but it does offer some interactivity through menus. However, the web site does not offer much assistance for the tactile/kinesthetic learners, as there are no discussion boards or simulations. Since parents may often come to this site looking for assistance with a problem, a discussion board would be helpful.
§ Aside from the option of listening to the audio of some word pronunciation, there is very little for the auditory learner here. It would be nice to include podcasts from health professionals on the site to meet the needs of these learners.
§ As noted in the podcast on Audience Analysis, the verbal learner likes the written language. This site contains mostly articles on kids health issues and helpful guides for parents. Other information is contained in “Instruction Sheets,” which are more colorful.
Audience Analysis Dimensions
Role
The Kids Health web site start page immediately defines the role of the user. They segment their sites by role: Parents, Kids and Teens. If a user doesn’t enter through this selection page, the option to switch is always available from the site. It is in this way that the web site article writers and designers can easily direct the tone of their information to the appropriate audience. For the Parents site, the designers are obviously directing the information towards adults (primarily parents) who are looking for information and resolution to health issues with their kids. Articles are written for parents, about their children.
Circumstances of use
The instruction sheets included on the site are more colorful than the text-based articles and make use of a variety of fonts and formats. It is worth noting that the subject matter that is typical of instruction sheets is one of an immediate health concern, e.g., Frostbite, Cutes, Nosebleeds, etc., as shown in Figure 6 below. Articles may be read as part of a parent’s research on a subject. When a parent utilizes an instruction sheet, however, they may be in a mode of urgency and possibly panic. The soothing, fun, graphical fonts may help put a parent at ease as they try to follow these instructions. The anticipation by web site designers may have taken the parent’s emotional circumstance into consideration when designing the instruction sheets.
Figure 6: List of instruction sheets.
Culture
The main menu contains the option, En espanol, which may have been a result of surveying (or
monitoring hits to the site of) their users’ geographical location. They either determined they get many users from
Spanish-speaking countries or concluded that it is a common language among its
Kids site
Overview of Web site Elements
The Kids site home page (http://www.kidshealth.org/kid/) is much more visual in nature than the Parents site home page. As displayed in Figure 7 below, the main menu is along the left, and animated graphics are in the focal point of the page. Most of the graphics on the page are animated and the web site in general is very colorful and fun.
One major design flaw that I see with this site is that
the main menu doesn’t fit on the page. The
point at which the screen in Figure 7 ends at the bottom is where it ends on
the monitor with a 1024x768 resolution which, according to web design
resources, including SmartWebby, is used by a majority of web surfers. http://www.smartwebby.com/web_site_design/designing_websites_for_all_resolutions.asp.
The menu items are more graphical, but still verbal in nature, using a language that is more geared toward children.
Figure 7: Kids site home page.
Some highlights of the site include:
§ Experiments, which include instructions for putting together experiments to learn about different senses. (See Figure 8 below.)
§ Dealing with Feelings, which lists some common emotional issues kids may experience like dealing with teachers, cheating, and cliques. (See Figure 9 below.)
§ A Shockwave option to view and learn about different parts of the body in an animated interactive graphic.
§ Q&A section that includes kid-oriented questions in terms they would look for, like “What’s a fart?” and “What’s Puke?”
§ A word glossary of medical terms that they may hear and want to know more about.
§ A “Health problems of Grown-Ups” section, which explains what adults in their life might be experiencing. The explanations are mostly text-based, rather than graphical like the rest of the site.
§ An En Espanol option on the main menu.
Figure 8: Experiments of the senses.
Figure 9: Dealing with Feelings section.
Learning Styles for Kids site
§ The site attracts not only the visual learner, but also the tactile/kinesthetic learner. The experiments section instructs and encourages creative play to learn about the body. The use of shockwave presentations as well as an interactive learning tool will satisfy the tactile/kinesthetic learner.
§ The visual/verbal learner will also be satisfied with this site, as the home page is mostly interactive and graphical in nature. Even the fonts used for the verbal menus are more playful, fun, and visually stimulating. Kids will certainly be attracted to this site.
§ As cited in the Audience Analysis podcast, according to the National Learning Institute, people learn more effective the more actively involved they are in the learning process. This site encourages that through its interactivity.
Audience Analysis Dimensions
Role
As discussed earlier in the Parents site section, kidshealth.org utilizes a start page that allows users to pick which type of user they are, Parent, Kid or Teen. This helps narrow the scope of who they are designing the Kids site for -- kids. The information on this site seems to be directed toward a young child who wants to learn more about the body and health, find answers to questions that are affecting him/her emotionally or those issues that may be affecting the adults in their lives. The site addresses that well, by writing from the child’s perspective.
Circumstances of use
The site takes into account at least a two circumstances of use.
§ First, is the virtual circumstance. If a user doesn’t enter through the start page where they select what type of user they are, they have the option on the page to switch to Kid, Parent or Teen.
§ Second, is emotional circumstance. The site is not just a fun site for learning about the body. It is also sensitive to the fact that kids may be going to find more about health issues they are concerned about for themselves or the adults in their lives. It also provides a great forum that discusses emotional issues kids may be having like teachers, making friends and going to a new school. They even have a special “Growing Up” section that deals with those specific issues. It takes into consideration that the users may be sensitive about these issues and uses a friendly non-judgmental tone. Most likely, the web site designers consulted educators, social workers, kids and parents to get the right tone and information for kids of this age.
Culture
Because the users are children, the level of language and
terminology used reflects the language style that kids use. They use terms that kids are likely to use
and search for on a site. They also
address that another language common to their users may be Spanish and offer
that option to switch to the Spanish language site. As with the Parents site, this may be a
reflection of geographical location outside of the
Conclusion
There is a clear difference in which learning styles a site for children and a site for adults is developed in. Based on the evaluation of these web sites, it is clear that web sites designed for children reflect the needs of tactile/kinesthetic learners and sites for adults are designed for verbal/visual learners.
However, the emergence of Web 2.0 is an interesting development, as it is reflective of how we are currently designing for younger users. There could be several contributing reasons for this:
§ It could be a reflection that the younger generation, who grew up learning in this way on the web, is now demanding this kind of design in the web sites they use as adults;
§ It could just be a reflection that technology advancements make it possible for web site developers to provide more interactive content that they couldn’t before;
§ Or, it could simply be that web site design is finally tying more closely into how to address a broader variety of learning styles through technology and design, and that this need had been ignored or not possible until now.
Whatever the reason(s), the examination of learning styles, audience analysis dimensions and web sites is an interesting one.