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Adults better Web surfers than teens, study shows

San Jose Mercury News

Tuesday 1 February 2005, 1:56 pm
Keywords: Computer Topics , News Articles

By K. Oanh Ha

Despite their image for being tech savvy, teenagers aren't as adept as adults when it comes to using the Internet, according to a report released Monday.

Teens ages 13 to 17 were able to complete assigned tasks on the Web 55 percent of the time, compared with 66 percent for adults, according to Nielsen Norman in Fremont, a firm known for studying how consumers use technology. The teens were hampered by poor reading and research skills and were more prone to leave a site after encountering difficulties.

"If things aren't immediately apparent, they go away," said Jakob Nielsen, co-founder of the firm. "Their distaste for reading was a big surprise. It has to be very short, brief text and big pictures."

The teens in the study, from California, Colorado and Australia, didn't like to read long blocks of text, preferring illustrations and pictures. They quickly gave up on sites once they encountered navigation and other problems. They also displayed poor searching skills, usually clicking on the first hit after a search query.

http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/10787236.htm